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Purchased   by  the 
Mrs.    Robert   Lenox   Kennedy   Church   History   Fund. 

BR  479  .012    1902  v. 2 

Grant,  William  Daniel,  1853- 

Christendom  anno  Domini     | 
MDCCCCI  .  . 


Christendom 
Anno    Domini 

M      D     C     C     C     C     I 


Eleven  hundred  pages.  Illustrated 
In  Tivo  Octavo    Volumes. 


VOL.   II. 


A  Presentation  of  Christian  Con- 
ditions and  Activities  in  Every  Country 
of  the  World  at  the  Beginning  of 
the  Twentieth  Century  by  more 
than    sixty   Competent   Contributors 


;     .•     .•     .•     ;     .•     .•     E  1 1 1  ■[  ED    v.\, 

REV.  WILLIAM  D.^GRANT,  Ph.D. 
With  Introductory  Note  by  P re s ide n t 
CHARLES  CUTHBERT  HALL,  D.D. 


New  York 

Chauncey  Holt 

1902 


Copyright   1902 

BY 

WM.  D.  GRANT 


Chauncey  Holt 

Printer 

-7  Rose  St.,  New  York 


Iln 

Sincere  OLo^alt^ 

ZTo  Ibim 

TObO0e  II  am 

anb 

Mbom  11  serve 


To  recognize  as  brethren  those  who  differ  from  us  in  religion ; 

To  accord  to  such  the  rights  and  privileges  which   belong  to 
them  ; 

To  covet  for  them  the  best  gifts  and  graces ; 

To  give  them  full  credit  for  the  good  that  appears  in  them ; 

To  speak  well   of  their  persons  and  to  show  interest  in  their 
work  ; 

To  rejoice  in  whatever  success  attends  their  labors ; 

To  believe    that    their    motives    may    be,    at    least,   as  pure  as 
our  own  ; 

To  bid  them  god-speed  in  life  and  action ; 

To  follow  after  the  things  which  make  for  peace   and   things 

wherewith  one  may  edify  another ; 
This   is  to  manifest  in  no  small  degree  the  love  of  our  Lord 

Jpsim  Christ  ;   the  spirit   of  tolerance   and   good   will  to 

men    -n    Inlly    exemplified   in    His   life   and   enforced   by 

His  teachings. 


CONTENTS. 


VOLUME  II. 


New  Problems  of  Christianity Manciu^  H.  Button,  D.D. 

Gains  of  Christianity President  John  U.  Barrows,  D.D. 

Religious  Thought  in  19th  Century George  T.  Purves,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

Social  Aspect  of  Christianity ./.  //.  W.  Stifckcnberg,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

Revivals  in  19th  Century J.  Wilhtir  Chapman,  D.D. 

<5::ri{iSTiANiTY  and  Philanthropy C.  H.  d'E.  Leppington 

Art  and  Religious  I'rogress Francis  E.  Marsien,  D.IK 

Religious  Leaders  in  19th  Century 

"Simeon  and  Schleiermacher,"  by  Prof.  Jackson;  "Bushnell,"  by 
Dr.  Munger;  "Martineau,"  by  Dr.  Grant;  '-Ritschl,"  by  Dr.  Garvie; 
"Brooks,"  by  Prof.  Allen;  "Moody,"  by  Dr.  Dixon. 

Critical  Movements  in  19Tn  Century  ....  Pro/.  Geo.  H.  Schodde.  Ph.D. 

Religious  Press IF.  C.  Gray,  Ph.D.,  LL.D. 

Roman  Catholic  Christianity Rev.  Alex.  P.  Doyle  (Paulist) 

Roman  Catholic  Missions Rev.  Alrx.  P.  Doyle  (Paulist) 

Greek  Christianity Prof.  A.  C.  Zenos,  D.D. 

Protestant  Christianity Rev.  Wm.  D.  Grant,  Ph.D. 

Protestant  Missions Judson  Smith,  D.D. 

Essential  Christianity Rev.   Wm.  D.  Grant,  Ph.D. 

Religions  Contrasted Prof.  Allan  llenzies,  D.D. 

Disunion  of  Christendom .A.  8.  Crapsey,  D.D. 

Church  Union Bishop  John  F.  Hurst,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

Federation  of  Churches Rev.  WalterLaidlatv,  Ph.D. 

The  Sunday-school A-  i^-  Schauffler,  D.D. 

Origin  and  Progress  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A .  . .  .  President  L.  L.  Doggett,  Ph.f). 

Evangelical  Alliance Rev.  Wm.  D.  Grant,  Ph.D. 

Rescue  Work Kaie  W.  Barrett,  M.D. 

W.  C.  T.  U.  Origin  and  Progress Katharine  L.  Stevenson 

Student  Federation foh",  R.  Mott 

The  Salvation  Army Commander  Booth  Tucker 

Social  Settlements Robert  A.  Woods 

Christian  Endeavor  Society Francis  E.  Clark,  D.D. 

King's  Daughters  and  Sons Rev.  Wm.  D.  Grant.  Ph.D. 


CONTENTS. 


VOLUME  II. 


PAGE 

New  I'roblems  of  Christianity,  Mancius  H.  Hutton,  D.D 1 

Forenote :  Getting  people  to  attend  church,  p.  1. — Prediction 
perilous,  p.  2. — The  mission  problem,  p.  4. — Religious  indifiference, 
p.  5. — The  resetting  of  the  Bible,  p.  6. — Sabbath  observance,  p.  7. — 
Family  religion,  p.  8. — Christian  doctrine,  p.  10. 

Gains  of  Christianity  in  the  IOtii  Century,  President  John  Henry 

Barrous,   D.D 12 

Christian  progress — extensive  and  intensive,  pp.  32-14. — The 
Bible  better  understood,  p.  14. — Fellowship  and  tolerance,  p.  14. — 
The  century  and  the  growth  of  toleration,  p.  15. — Men  and  influ- 
ences which  have  made  for  religious  liberty,  p.  18. — The  true 
chui'ch  better  understood,  p.  19. — The  drawing  together  of  Christian 
hearts,  p.  20. — Change  in  religious  form  and  method,  p.  21. — The 
church  beginning  to  take  the  view-point  of  Jesus  Christ,  p.  22. 

Religious  Thought  in  the  IOth  Century,  George  T.  Purves,  D.D., 

LL.D 23 

Christianity  claims  the  right  to  govern  the  whole  man,  p.  23. — 
Religious  thougiit  stirred  by  the  thinking  done  in  other  lines,  p. 
24. —  ( 1  )  Note  emphasis  laid  on  the  soul's  immediate  relation  to 
God,  p.  24. — The  Divine  immanence,  p.  26. —  (2)  The  emphasis 
placed  on  the  love  of  (>od,  p.  27. — The  Fatherhood  of  God,  p.  28. — 
(3)  Historical  criticism,  p.  29. —  (4)  Progress  of  physical  sciences, 
p.  31. —  (5)  Christianity  thought  of  as  a  social  force,  p.  33. —  (6) 
Thought  with  regard  to  the  comparative  study  of  religions,  p.  35. — 
Christianity  the  absolute  religion,  p.  3G. 

The  Sociai,  Aspect  of  Ciip.istianity,  ,/.  //.    IF.  ,^t.ucJ:enberg,  D.D., 

LL.D 37 

The  new  spirit  in  th.'  Clu'istian  C-hurch,  ik  .'57. — The  influences 
which  begat  the  new  order,  p.  37. — The  French  revolution  and  the 
Socialist's  aim,  p.  38. — Religious  life  and  metaphysical  speculation, 
p.  41. — Attacks  on  Holy  Scripture — Strauss,  p.  11.— Recent  social 
movements  due  to  many  causes,  p.  42. — Clerical  apathy  in  England, 
p.  42. — A  great  awakening  in  England,  p.  45. — Social  movement  in 
Germany,  p.  4.'). — Catholic  and  Protestant,  p.  47. — Modern  social 
movement  in  the  Tnited  States,  p.  48. — The  pulpit  and  the  social 
movement  in  the  United  States,  p.  .50. — Movement  mainly  begun  by 
individuals  in  the  IT.  S..  p.  51.— Theories  adopted  not  always  uni- 
form nor  Biblical,  p.  .53. — The  new  social  Gosjjel,  p.  54. — The  method 


CONTENTS.  7 

PAGE 

of  Jesus,  p.  55. — The  study  of  Scripture  and  human  relations,  p. 
56. — Social  awakening  of  the  church,  p.  57. — Institutional  church 
work,  p.  58. — Religion  brought  out  into  daylight,  p.  59. 
Nineteenth  Century  Revivals,  J.  Wilbur  Chapman,  D.D 61 

Forenote :  Revivals  still  a  need  of  the  church,  p.  61. — The  closing 
years  of  the  century  not  encouraging,  p.  02. — Modern  Christianity 
and  revival  movements,  p.  G2.— Revivals  in  colleges,  p.  64. — The 
prince  of  evangelists,  p.  65. — The  revival  of  1S57,  p.  66. — Mr. 
D wight  L.  Moody,  p.  (58. — What  has  been  accomplished  by  revivals? 
p.  70. 
Philanthropy  in  the  19th  Century,  C  H.  d'E.  Loppington 72 

Forenote :  Christianity  and  philanthropy,  p.  72. — The  altruistic 
spirit  preceded  Christianity,  p.  72. — Liberality  among  the  ancients, 
but  no  philanthropy,  p.  7.3. — Christian  benevolence  embraces  all  men. 
p.  74. — No  other  religion  has  so  insisted  upon  and  inspired  charity, 
p.  75. — Parish  relief  in  the  seventh  century,  p.  76. — Early  and  later 
provisions  for  the  destitute  in  the  United  States,  p.  77. — National 
provision  for  the  poor  in  other  countries — England,  p.  79 ;  Ger- 
many, p.  80 ;  Scandinavia,  Russia,  France,  p.  81 ;  Belgium,  Hol- 
land, p.  82 ;  Italy,  p.  83. — State  and  individual  aid,  p.  84. — Altered 
social  conditions  require  new  methods,  p.  85. — Improved  accommo- 
dation, p.  86. — Associations  for  philanthropic  service,  p.  86. — Kais- 
erswerth.  the  Salvation  Army,  p.  87. — Many  fresh  philanthropic 
shoots,  p.  88. — Providing  for  defectives,  p.  91. — The  housing  of  the 
poor,  p.  92. — Personal  contact,  p.  93. — "Friendly  Visitor,"  p.  94. — 
Charity  organization,  p.  95. — Industrial  co-operation,  p.  96. — The 
evils  of  uninstructed  philanthropy,  p.  97. — Results  of  the  survey,  p. 
98. 
Art  and  Social  and  Religious  Progress,  Francis  E.  Marsten,  D.D..   100 

Forenote :  Tendency  of  imagery  in  public  worship,  p.  100. — The 
relations  of  art  to  religious  and  social  progress,  p.  100. — Art  and 
morals,  p.  102. — Art  and  worship,  p.  103.— Art  and  the  reformation, 
p.  104. — Art  and  social  well-being,  p.  104. — Prof.  Hamlin's  observa- 
tion, p.  107. — Robertson's  picture  and  its  effect,  p.  108. — Art  in 
kitchen  stoves,  p.  108. — Pullman's  model  town,  p.  109. — Money  val- 
uation of  things,  p.  109. — Modern  art  an  enrichment,  p."  110. — De- 
formity and  Divinity  far  apart,  p.  112. — Much  remains  to  be  done, 
p.  112. 
Religious  Leaders 114 

Forenote:  The  imperishable  and  the  Carpenter's  Son.  p.  114. 
Charles  Simeon,  Samuel  Macauley  Jackson,  D.D.,  LL.D 115 

The  evangelical  movement  in   England,   p.   11.5. — Early   pastoral 
difficulties  and  ultimate  success,  p.  116. 
Friedricii  Schleiermacher,  Samuel  Macauley  Jackson,  D.D.,  LL.D.   117 

Early  life  and  training,  p.  117. — His  "Speeches  on  Religion"  and 
their  effect,  p.  118. — Becomes  professor  at  Berlin,  p.  119. 
Horace  Bushneli>.  Theodore  T.  Hunger,  D.D 120 


8  PON  TENTS. 

PAGE 

His  iiiflui'ucL'  still  ijrowiug.  p.  IL'O. — Early  life  and  studies,  p.  120. 
—Mental  powers  and  freedom,  p.  121. — Pastoral  labors  and  literary 
efforts,  p.  122. — He  is  charged  with  heresy,  p.  124. 
.l.<.MEs  Marti.neau,  liei-.   Wm.  D.  Grant,  Ph.D 127 

Where  and  how  his  early  yeaiw  were  spent,  p.  127. — Pastoral 
charges — Duhlin,  Liverpool.  London,  pp.  128-9. — Professor  at  Man- 
chester New  College,  p.  128. — Visits  (Jermany,  is  chosen  principal  of 
New  College,  retires  at  the  age  of  85,  p.  129. — The  Metaphysical 
Society  and  Martineau's  tolerance,  p.  130. — Appearance  and  char- 
acteristics, p.  130. — As  a  preacher,  p.  13L — The  fruits  of  his  literary 
activities,  p.  132. — Theological  hent — Unitarian,  p.  134. — Academic 
honors  and  personal  appreciation,  p.  136. — The  great  address,  p.  137. 
— His  "unique  personality"  and  pre-eminence  among  master  minds. 
p.  138. 
Aluuhciit  Uit.sciii..  Rev.  Alfred  E.  Garvie,  B.D 139 

By  birth  and  breeding  dedicated  to  theology,  p.  139. — His  mental 
history  ;  professor  at  Bonn,  then  at  Gottingen.  p.  139. — Published 
works,  p.  140. — The  Kitschlian  school  of  theologians  and  their  dis- 
tinctive doctrines,  p.  141. — Merits  and  influence  of  the  school,  p. 
142. 
Phillips  Bbook.s,  Alexander  V.  G.  Allen,  D.D 144 

The  sphere  and  fruits  of  his  activity,  p.  144.-— Con.spicuous  as  a 
preacher,  p.  144. — A  mind  capable  of  clear  thinking,  "The  influence 
of  Jesus,"  p.  147. — All  sectarianism  seemed  to  disappear  in  his  pres- 
ence, p.  148. 
DwiouT  L.  MoouY,  A.  ('.  Dixon,  D.D 148 

Forenote:  By  weight  of  i)ersonality  born  to  command,  p.  148.— 
He  was  honest  and  humble,  p.  149. — He  was  practical,  hopeful, 
brave,  and  tolerant,  p.  150. — He  made  himself  the  servant  of  all ;  a 
preacher,  rather  than  a  teacher,  p.  151. — He  was  a  prophet  of  God 
and  his  mes-sage  was  "Salvation  liy  Grace,"  p.  1.52. 
MovEME.NTs  Ckitical  AND  Etuical,  George  II.  ^chodde,  Ph.D 155 

Forenote:  The  right  and  need  of  criticism,  p.  155. — Criticism  not 
regarding  doctrine  but  the  Scriptures  themselves,  p.  155. — Criticism 
has  emphasized  the  human  side  of  tlio  Scriptures,  p.  156. — Higher 
and  lower  criticism,  p.  1.58. — Some  distingiiisliod  names,  p.  159. — 
Practical  and  theoretical  aspects  of  the  task,  p.  100. — An  attempt  to 
reBtore  tlie  original  readings  of  the  O.  T..  p.  161. — Higher  criticism 
h«H  met  with  disfavor  because  unknown,  p.  1(>J^. — A  few  great  names 
and  their  work,  p.  164. — In  both  the  New  and  the  Old  Testament 
strefw  has  been  laid  on  the  literary  analysis  of  the  various  books,  p. 
IWJ.— The  movement  originated  by  Hit.sclil.  i).  168. — No  ethical 
movement  of  a  theoretical  character  outside  that  of  Ritschl,  p.  170. 
The  Ukm(;i(>i;s  Pkk.ss.    Ifwi.  C.  Gray,  Ph.D.,  LL.D 171 

Forenote:  PosHil)le  union  of  the  religious  press,  p.  IVl. — Origin  of 
the  religiouH  paper,  p.  172.— The  quality  and  method  of  the  religious 
jonrnnlism  of  ili.>  fntur.',  p.  171.     The  aim  of  religious  press,  p.  175. 


CONTENTS.  9 

PAOE 

Roman  Catholic  Christianity,  Rev.  Alex.  P.  Doyle  {Paulist) 176 

Forenote :  Confession  made  by  non-Catholic  when  uniting  with 
the  church,  p.  176. — Development  of  the  church  in  doctrine  and 
ritual,  p.  177. — The  church  more  an  organism  than  an  organization, 
p.  178.— The  church's  teaching  authority,  p.  179. — The  doctrine  of 
Papal  Infallibility,  p.  180. — The  seven  sacraments,  p.  181. — The 
church's  standards  of  holy  living  and  saintly  heroism,  p.  183. — Her 
views  regarding  the  social  order,  p.  183. — The  church's  sympathy 
with  labor,  p.  184. — The  Catholic  Church  is  the  salt  of  the  earth,  p. 
185. — Beliefs  which  all  Christians  have  in  common,  p.  186. — Devo- 
tion to  the  Virgin  Mary  and  the  saints,  p.  186.— Purgatory,  p.  187. 

Roman  Catholic  Missions,  Rev.  Alex.  P.  Doyle  {Paulist) 188 

Forenote  :  Martineau's  tribute  to  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  p. 
188. — At  the  beginning  of  last  century,  p.  189. — The  external  and 
internal  growth  of  the  church  during  the  century,  p.  191. — Large 
increase  of  orders  and  communities,  p.  191. — Missionary  enterprises, 
p.  192. — Rapid  growth  in  Anam  and  China,  p.  194. — Captain  Young- 
husband's  tribute,  p.  195. — The  origin  of  "Propaganda  de  Fide,"  p. 
195.— Statistics,  p.  197. 

Greek  Christianity,  Professor  A.  C.  Zenos,  D.D 200 

Forenote  :  Reply  of  Greek  Church  to  Pope's  encyclical,  p.  200. — 
What  the  (Jreek  Church  is  and  embraces,  p.  201. — I.  The  influence 
of  Greek  thought  on  the  church,  p.  202. — Clement,  p.  203. — The 
three  Gregories,  p.  205. — John  of  Damascus,  p.  206. — The  form  of 
doctrine  fixed,  p.  207. — II.  The  polity  of  Greek  Christianity,  p.  207. 
— Holds  to  the  oneness  of  church  and  state,  p.  208. — III.  Form  of 
worship,  p.  209. — The  introduction  of  images,  p.  210. 

Protestant  Christianity,  Rev.  Wm.  D.  Grant,  Ph.D 212 

Forenote  :  Contemplating  her  conquests,  the  Church  of  Rome  was 
led  t(j  believs  that  God  was  in  her  institutions  and  that  she  was 
necessary  to  God,  p.  212. — The  Church  of  Rome  lays  claim  to  man's 
confidence  even  when  she  has  forfeited  God's  favor,  p.  213. — Re- 
ligious institutions  can.  no  more  than  political  or  commercial,  stand 
when  they  have  proved  recreant  to  trust,  p.  214. — Luther's  experi- 
ence in  Rome,  p.  215. — Dr.  Louis  Pastor's  "History  of  the  Popes 
Since  Close  of  the  Middle  Ages,"  p.  216. — Rome  has  losf"her  power, 
p.  217. — Rome  is  accountable  to  no  one  but  herself,  p.  217. — Glad- 
stone, Manning,  Rome's  arrogant  spirit,  and  the  original  protest,  p. 
218. — Attempts  at  reform,  p.  219. — How  shall  Protestantism  be  de- 
fined'? p.  219. — With  the  Roman  Catholic  the  church  is  an  end,  with 
the  Protestant  it  is  but  a  means,  p.  220. — The  supremacy  and  sutfi- 
ciency  of  Holy  Scripture,  p.  221. — The  right  of  private  judgment, 
p.  225. — Jesus  Christ  the  only  Mediator,  p.  228. — Justification  by 
faith  alone,  p.  231. — Why  are  Protestants  disliked  by  Roman  Cath- 
olics? p.  233. — Protestantism  will  deserve  the  Divine  disfavor  as 
Rome  has,  and  meet  with  Divine  condemnation,  unless  she  serves  His 
people  with  her  Ijest,  p.  235. 


10  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Protestant  Fobeion  Missions.  Judson  8mith,  D.D 230 

Forenote  :  The  spirit  of  union  more  manifest  in  the  foreign  field 
than  at  home,  p.  1230. — The  achievements  of  missions  during  the  cen- 
tury as  great  as  in  any  other  line  of  progress,  p.  237. — Missionary 
organization,  p.  237. — The  state  of  world  one  hundred  years  ago,  p. 
238. — Missionary  expansion,  p.  238. — Statistics,  p.  239. — Some  great 
names,  p.  240. — Difficulty  in  enlisting  the  church  in  the  great  work, 
p.  240. — The  native  agencies,  p.  241. — Evidences  of  progress  in  Mad- 
agascar, Fiji,  China,  p.  241. — At  the  opening  of  the  century  the 
great  religions  of  the  East  seemed  formidable,  p.  242. — The  message 
of  the  missionary,  p.  243. — In  the  main  the  world  is  now  open,  and 
in  most  countries  substantial  foundations  have  been  laid  and  fore- 
gleams  of  final  victory  have  been  seen,  p.  243. 
Essential  Ciiuistiaxity,  Rev.  Wm.  D.  Grant,  Ph. I) 245 

Systems  soon  depart  from  original  simplicity,  p.  245. — Christianity 
no  exception  to  the  rule,  but  possesses  the  power  of  self-renewal,  p. 
240. — The  Reformation  an  attempt  to  return  to  primitive  Christian- 
ity, p.  240. — What  are  fundamentals,  and  what  circumstantials?  p. 
247. — No  formulated  system  in  the  Gospels,  p.  247. — Need  not  go 
beyond  the  Gospels  for  essential  Christianity,  p.  249. — We  are  as 
capable  now.  as  in  any  previous  period,  of  determining  what  Christi- 
anity is.  p.  249. — The  essential  and  distinguishing  feature  of  Christi- 
anity— life  in  and  union  with  Jesus  Christ,  p.  2.50. — IIow  much 
knowledge  is  needful V  p.  250. — Opinions  may  be  held  tenaciously, 
while  fellowship  with  Christ  in  life  and  service  are  unknown,  p.  251. 
— Life  in  and  union  with  Jesus  Christ  the  secret  of  all  spiritual 
greatness  and  power,  p.  253. — Whittier's  poem,  p.  2.54. 
Religions  Contkasted,  Professor  Allan  Men::ies,  D.D 255 

Forenote :  The  pre-Christian  religions,  p.  2.55. — IIow  can  compari- 
son be  madeV  p.  255. — If  we  send  missionaries  to  heathen  peoples  we 
shuuld  know  tiie  reason  why  ;  why  are  we  ourselves  Christians,  rather 
than  .MoliammcdansV  p.  2.50. — Wrong  ways  of  making  a  comparison, 
p.  257. — Christianity  difficult  to  define,  equally  true  of  other  re- 
ligions, p.  2.5H. — Neither  history  nor  statistics  will  help  us,  p.  259. — 
Religions  can  be  judged  only  by  their  comparative  value  for  the 
human  spirit  and  for  human  society,  p.  200. — The  morphological 
method,  p.  200. — The  various  f^tages  of  a  religious  development,  p. 
203. — Christianity  is  higher  in  the  scale  of  religions  than  any  other. 
p.  204. — Tlie  (>hinese,  Greece,  Assyria,  Egypt,  even  Judaism,  p.  204. 
— Two  national  religions — Cliinose  and  Judaism,  p.  205. — Three 
universal  religions — Ituddhisni,  Christianity,  Islam,  p.  2<;(i. — How 
Khali  we  I'ompare  these  three?  p.  2(i7. — Buddhism,  p.  207. — Islam,  p. 
209. — Christianity,  p.  270. 
TuE  Disunion  of  Ciiuihtenoom,  Algernon  8.  Crapsey,  D.D 272 

Lines  of  progre.ss  and  unification,  p.  272. — Our  Lord  disappointed, 
P-  272. — There  was  disunion  everywhere  in  our  Lord's  day,  p.  273. — 
Our  Lord's  i>I«n  of  unification,  p.  274. — Success  of  the  plan,  p.  275. 


CONTENTS.  11 

PAGE 

— Failure  of  plan  since  fourth  century,  p.  276. — Cause  of  failure,  p. 
278. — Doctrinal  unity,  p.  282. — Reunion  of  the  church  in  God  and 
in  humanity,  p.  288. 

Church  Union  Movements,  Bishop  John  Fletcher  Hurst,  D.D.,  LL.D.  290 
Forenote :  Defeat  due  to  disunion,  p.  290. — Division  of  Greek  and 
Latin  churches,  p.  290. — First  attempts  at  union,  p.  292. — Irenic 
movements  since  the  Keformation,  p.  293. — The  Foraiula  of  Concord, 
p.  294. — Efforts  for  the  union  of  the  Reformed  and  Lutheran  bodies, 
p.  296. — Labors  of  Durie,  Calixtiis,  Grotius,  Owen,  Baxter,  pp.  297- 
301. — English  Presbyterians  and  Congregationalists.  p.  302. — The 
union  of  1817,  p.  305. — Protestantism  and  the  Greek  Church,  p.  306. 
— Van  Dyke,  p.  310. — Recent  unions  and  negotiations,  p.  312. 

CHURCif  Federation,  Rev.  Walter  Laidlaio,  Ph.D 321 

Organic  union  is  not  in  sight,  p.  322. — Old  World,  church  and 
state,  p.  322. — England's  eariy  congresses,  p.  323. — Contrasts  with 
America,  p.  324. — Sociological  objects,  p.  326. — Council  member- 
ship, p.  327. — Catechism  on  church  and  state,  p.  328. — South  Africa, 
Jamaica,  and  Scotland,  deuomiuational  inclusion,  p.  332. — Intoler- 
ance, London's  federation,  p.  333. — Special  services,  p.  3.34. — Mission 
results,  p.  335. — The  co-operative  parish  idea,  p.  336. — Federation 
extension,  p.  337. — New  World  federation,  p.  337. — A  national 
church,  p.  338. — Political  federation,  p.  339. — America's  problem,  p. 
340. — Urban  population,  p.  340.— Alien  population,  p.  341. — Conges- 
tion, church  extension,  New  York's  federation,  p.  342. — Creeds  in 
New  York,  p.  343.— Sociological  bureau,  p.  344. — Co-operative  dis- 
trict plan,  p.  346. — Co-operative  calendars,  p.  347. — Inductive 
church  extension,  p.  347. — Chicago  and  other  cities,  p.  348. 

The  Sunday-school,  A.  F.  Schaufflc?;  D.D 353 

Forenote :  God's  instrument  for  fashioning  human  lives,  p.  353. — 
Oi'igin  and  growth  of  the  Sunday-school,  p.  353. — Means  and  meth- 
ods, p.  354. — No  teaching  nor  accommodation  too  good  for  the  Sun- 
day-school, p.  355. — Though  great  progress  has  been  made  in  equip- 
ment and  conduct,  much  still  remains  to  be  done,  p.  .355. — Leadership 
is  the  first  consideration,  and  the  second  is  like  unto  it,  the  system- 
atic preparation  of  the  teacher  for  his  work.  p.  356. 

The  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  President  L.  L.  Doggett,  Ph.D .- 358 

Forenote  :  The  practical  character  and  fruits  of  the  association,  p. 
358. — Young  men  and  the  city,  p.  359. — The  origin  of  the  association, 
p.  359. — International  work,  p.  360. — Revival  of  1S57  and  the  Y.  M. 
C.  A.,  p.  300. — Evangelistic  work.  p.  361. — Work  for  young  men,  p. 
361. — The  building  movement,  p.  36'2. — The  meeting  at  Louisville  in 
1877,  p.  363. — The  work  in  non-Christian  countries,  p.  363. — Boys' 
work,  p.  364. — American  international  committee,  p.  36-4. — The 
growth  of  the  association,  p.  364. — The  founder  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A., 
p.  365.— The  Boston  Jubilee,  p.  S66. 

Evangelical  Alliance,  Rev.  Wni.  D.  Grant.  Ph.D 368 

Forenote:  The  unity  is  needful  for  the  eflSciency  of  the  Christian 


12  CONTENTS. 

PAOE 

Church,  p.  3(>S.— The  origiu  aod  aim  of  the  alliance,  p.  369. — Some 
account  of  the  life  of  Dr.  Wm.  Patton,  p.  370.— The  spread  of  the 
alliance,  p.  372.— The  work  of  the  alliance,  p.  372.— King  of  Portu- 
gal and  the  alliance,  p.  374. 

.vEScuE  Work,  Kate  Waller  Barrett,  M.D 370 

Forenote:  Philanthropic  and  religious  activities  in  cities,  p.  376. 
— Resi'ue  work  of  recent  origin,  yet  "Missions"  are  already  planted 
in  all  the  great  cities,  p.  377. — North  End  Mission,  Boston,  p.  377. — 
•'Water  Street"  and  other  missions  in  New  York  City,  p.  378. — Mis- 
sions in  other  cities,  p.  379. — The  National  Florence  Crittenton  Mis- 
sion, p.  380. — Mile-End  Road  and  Regions  Beyond  Missions,  Lon- 
don, iJ.  381. — The  sort  of  qualification  needful  for  this  task,  p.  381. — 
Personal  contact,  p.  382. — Rescue  is  prevention,  p.  382. — Society's 
lowest  elements  must  be  reached  and  raised,  p.  383. 

\V.  C.  T.  U.,  Katharine  Lcnte  Stevenson 385 

Forenote :  Condemnation  of  the  liquor  traffic,  p.  385. — History  of 
the  temperance  movement  in  America  before  the  W.  C.  T.  U.,  p. 
380. — The  origin  and  organization  of  the  "Union,"  p.  390. — Dr.  Dio 
Lewis'  part  in  its  origin,  p.  390. — The  Ohio  crusade,  p.  391.— Early 
conventions  and  officers,  p.  392. — E.xpansion  and  development  of 
work,  p.  393. — Miss  Willard.  p.  395. — Round-the-world  missionaries, 
p.  398. — Lady  Henry  Somerset,  p.  398. — The  first  world's  conven- 
tion, p.  399.— The  "Do  Everything  Policy,"  p.  399.— The  work  and 
influence  of  the  "Union,"  p.  400. — Miss  Willard's  death,  p.  402. — 
The  Washington  convention.  1900,  p.  403. — Two  quotations,  p.  403. 
— The  lost  boy,  p.  405. 

World-wide  Student  Move.\ient,  John  It.  Matt,  M.A 407 

Forenote:  Religion  among  students  in  1800  and  at  the  present 
time,  p.  407. — The  importance  of  the  student  element,  p.  408. — Stu- 
dent organization — in  America,  p.  409;  (Jreat  Britain,  p.  411  :  Ger- 
ir.sn.v,  p.  412;  Scandinavia,  p.  413;  Switzerland,  Holland.  France, 
Egypt,  p.  414:  India  and  Ceylon,  p.  415;  Australasia,  p.  410; 
China,  p.  417;  .Japan,  p.  420. — Federation  of  students,  p.  420. — 
What  has  been  accomplished?  p.  421. 

Salvatio.n  Army,  Commander  Booth  Tucker 423 

(Jenerai  Wm.  Booth,  p.  423. — Early  life  and  exi)erience  of  Wm. 
Booth,  p.  424. — The  influence  of  the  Nottingham  revival,  p.  425. — 
EnthuKJasm  and  natural  leadership,  p.  425. — Catherine  :\Iumford, 
the  army's  mother,  p.  42(». — Ecclesiastical  restrictions  ilrive  Booth 
ont  of  "regular"  work,  \).  428. — Persecution,  p.  429. — Evolution  of 
the  army  idea.  p.  429. — The  army's  wonderful  progress,  p.  431. 

SoriAi,  SriTi.KMKNT.s,  Jtolivrt  A.  \VoodK 432 

Forenote:  The  meaning  of  religion  and  life  taught  by  action,  p. 
432.— The  motive  of  first  settlements,  p.  432.— Institutional  develop- 
ment nnd  personal  influence,  p.  433.— Toynbee  Hall  the  first,  p.  434. 
— Oxford  and  other  houses,  p.  43.5. — Fiist  American  .settlement,  p. 
430.— Dr.  Stanton  Ccjit  and  the  Neiifhhorhood  Ciiild,  p.  437.— Hull 


CONTENTS.  13 

PAGE 
House,  p.  438. — Prof.  Taylor's  efforts  in  Chicago  notPworthy.  p.  430. 
— Other  settlements  throughout  the  country,  p.  439. — The  influence 
on  the  community  and  on  the  church,  p.  440. — Bibliography,  p.  441. 

Christian   Endeavor,  Francis  E.  Clark,  D.D 442 

Forenote  :  Enthusiasm  for  Christian  Endeavor,  p.  442. — Origin, 
character,  and  aim.  p.  443. — Pledge  and  service,  p.  444. — Fidelity  and 
fellowship,  p.  445. — First  twenty  years  of  C.  E.,  p.  44G. — "News- 
Tribune"  of  Detroit  on  the  convention  of  1899,  p.  447. 

BROTnERiiooD  OF  ANDREW  AND  PiTiLip,  Rcv.  G.  E.  Wtjckoff 448 

Origin,  aim,  and  growth,  p.  448. 
Epwortii  League,  Brotherhood  of  St.  Andrew.  King's  Daughters 

AND  Sons,  Rev.  Wm,  D.  Grant,  Fh.D 450-453 


CONTENTS. 


VOLUME  I. 


AFRICA Frederic  Perry  Nohle,  Ph.D. 

Arabia  and  Peksia Rev.  W.  A.  Shedd 

Australasia Rev.  H.  T.  Burgess,  LL.D. 

Austria Albert  W.  Clark,  D.D. 

Canada George  M.  Grant,  D.D..  LL.D. 

China Prof.  Lmac  T.  Headland,  S.T.B. 

Danubian  States Rev.  Marko  N.  Popoff  aud  Rev.  Stephen  Thomoff 

England  and  Wales Rev.  J.  Arthur  Meeson,  LL.B. 

France  and  Beloitjm M.  Eugene  R6vcillaud 

Germany Count  A.  Bemstorif  and  Pastor  P.  Pieper,  D.D. 

Greece  and  Macedonia Socrates  A.  Xanthaky 

Uolland Rev.   Wm.   Thomson,  B.D. 

Hungary Andrew  Moody,  D.D. 

India,  Burma,  and  Ceylon James  Mudge,  D.D. 

Ireland R.  MeCheyne  Edgar,  D.D. 

Italy Ale-vander  Robertson,  D.D. 

Japan Rev.  Sidney  L.  Gulick,  M.A. 

Korea Rev.   George  H.  Jones,  M.A. 

:\lAi,AY8iA Rev.  n.  L.  E.  Leuring,  Ph.D. 

Mexico  and  Central  America J.  W.  Butler,  D.D. 

Oceania Rev.  Joseph  King 

Russia Prof.  Fred.  Kattenbtisch,  D.D. 

Scandinavia C.  F.   Lundin,  Ph.D. 

Scotland Prof.  John  Hcrkless,  D.D. 

SlAM President  Chalmers  Martin,  D.D. 

South  America Elsie  Wood 

Spain  and  Portitgal Rev.  Wm.  H.  Oulick 

Switzerland Prof.  J.  Martin  Vincent,  Ph.D. 

■I'i;bkikh  Empire Prof.  Edward  Riggs,  D.D. 

I'nited  States— 

L'jman  Ahhntt.  D.D..  LL.D..  and  ff<^\  Ww.  D.  Grant,  Ph.D. 
Wert  Indies Marghrrifa  .■irlina  Flamm. 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 

VOL.  n. 

Page. 

Charles  G.  Finney 64 

Charities  Building,  New  York 72 

Theodore  L.  Cuyler,  D.D.,  LL.D 120 

James  Martineau 128 

Pope  Leo  XIII 176 

Group  of  Greek  Clergy 200 

Protestant  Memorial  at  Spire-on-the- Rhine 216 

General  Neal  Dow 328 

John  B.  Gough 336 

Robert  Raikes 352 

Sir  George  Williams 360 

William  Patton,  D.D 368 

Jerry  McAuley 376 

S.  H.  Hadley 384 

Frances  E.  Willard 392 

Lady  Henry  Somerset 400 

John  R.  Mott '. 408 

Sir  Wilfrid  Lawson 416 

General  William  Booth 424 

Mrs.  William  Booth 428 

Arnold  Toynbee 432 

University  Settlement,  New  York 432 

Francis  E.  Clark,  D.D 44° 

Y.  P.  S.  C.  E.   Memorial  Tablet  in  Williston  Church, 

Portland,  Me 448 


NEW  PROBLEMS  OF  CHRISTIANITY  IN 
MODERN  SOCIETY. 


Mancius  H.  Hutton,  D.D., 

NEW  BRUNSWICK. 

[Sometimes  there  is  no  good  in  going  to  churcli.  It  depends  principally  on 
the  church.  It  is  often  claimed  that  church  attendance  is  on  the  decrease. 
I  do  not  know,  but  even  if  it  is  it  may  possibly  be  as  much  due  to  the  debility 
of  the  churches  as  to  the  depravity  of  the  people  who  stay  away  from  them. 
People  are  not  going  to  be  drawn  in  by  being  scolded  for  staying  out.  Nor  are 
they  going  to  be  drawn  in — in  a  way  to  hold  them — by  being  coaxed  in  by 
artificial  seductions.  The  average  man  is  too  keen-scented  to  be  caught  in 
an  ecclesiastical  trap.  A  good  deal  of  money  is  put  into  the  artistic  trim- 
mings of  sanctuary  service.  There  is  no  objection  to  the  artistic  if  it  is 
wrought  into  the  body  of  the  service,  and  not  availed  of  simply  as  so  much 
millinery  put  on  to  make  the  service  more  presentable.  The  multitudes 
are  not  hoodwinked.  They  know  how  to  crowd  in  for  the  music,  and  then 
how  to  crowd  out  in  time  to  escape  the  Law  and  the  Gospel. 

The  advertising  of  sensational  topics  is  another  way  the  pulpit  takes  to 
worry  truth  into  reluctant  hearts  of  advertisement-captured  congregations. 
It  does  not  hold  the  people,  but  it  does  cheapen  the  pulpit  and  set  the  house 
of  God  in  the  same  row  with  the  dry-goods  stores,  millinery  shops  and  other 
institutions  that  put  big  headlines  in  the  newspapers,  and  flaming  placards  in 
the  front  windows.  We  may  call  the  rank  and  file  of  people  very  godless, 
but  they  are  able  to  distinguish  remarkably  well  between  fact  and  fiction  in 
matters  of  religion.  I  believe  that  ninety  people  out  of  a  hundred  would  re- 
spect God's  house  if  they  were  sure  that  it  is  God's  house  more  than  it  is 
man's.  It  takes  a  good  dea!  besides  a  pulpit,  a  choir  loft  and  a  spire  to 
make  a  church. 

The  sanctuary  is  only  playing  with  its  opportunities  and  gr-oping  along  the 
frontier  of  its  proper  domain  until  it  becomes  in  truth  the  very  house  of 
God,  the  temple  which  He  fills  with  His  presence,  a  meeting-place  between 
God  and  man,  and  until  the  preacher  becomes  himself  an  apostle  made  compe- 
tent by  a  direct  Divine  inspiration  to  speak  God's  truth  into  the  hearts  of 
men  that  are  tired,  troubled  and  sin-sick. — Chables  H.  Pabkhubst,  D.  D. — 
Ed.] 

*  *  * 

It  is  a  very  obvious  reflection  that  it  would  be  vastly  less  difTicult 
to  write  this  paper  with  authority  at  the  end  of  the  twentieth  century 
rather  than  at  its  beginning.     It  is  always  easier  to  be  a  prophet 

1 


2  CHRISTENDOM. 

after  the  event.  You  go  out  on  a  spring  morning  to  discern  the 
probabilities  of  the  weather  of  the  new  and  still  approaching  day,  to 
find  that  it  is  not  easy.  There  are  clouds  in  the  sky,  but  the  sun  is 
struggling  with  them.  The  winds  are  variable  and  breathe  from  all 
quarters  one  after  another,  but  from  no  one  of  them  long  and 
steadily.  Under  such  circumstances  one  hesitates  to  say  whether 
it  will  be  a  day  of  showers  or  of  sunshine.  But  to-morrow  it  will 
take  only  a  faithful  observer  to  report  what  the  weather  was.  At 
present,  with  the  long  day  still  before  him,  it  takes  a  prophet  to  say 
what  the  weather  will  be.  In  the  year  2001  we  shall  know  what  the 
problems  of  the  twentieth  century  really  were.  Until  that  time  one 
predicts  at  his  peril.  Clouds  now  black  and  threatening  may  dis- 
solve before  they  are  fairly  overhead.  Clear  spaces  all  blue  and 
pellucid  to-day  may  be  the  centres  of  cyclonic  convulsion  before  the 
centurial  day  is  over. 

The  consideration  just  mentioned  leads  us  on  to  observe  that  so- 
ciety itself  varies  from  generation  to  generation,  and  from  place  to 
place.  Problems  which  are  pressing  in  one  country  may  not  be 
worth  considering  in  another.  For  example,  the  early  part  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  whether  it  be  taken  in  Great  Britain  or  in  the 
United  States,  witnessed  a  totally  different  spiritual  condition  of  the 
average  population  from  that  which  obtained  at  the  opening  of  the 
nineteenth.  The  work  of  the  Wesleys  and  of  Whitefield  would 
hardly  have  had  such  welcome  and  such  effectual  activity  in  any 
other  age  than  the  one  in  which  it  fell.  The  problem  which  it  met 
and  solved  so  blessedly  was  one  whose  conditions  lasted  for  only  a 
decade  or  two.  In  the  same  way  it  is  now  impossible  to  foresee  dis- 
tinctly the  problems  of  an  approaching  era.  Christianity  must  in- 
deed be  alert  to  see  them  when  they  come  and  to  solve  them  as  they 
stand  before  its  face.  But  there  are  doubtless  oncoming  problems 
in  the  bosom  of  the  twentieth  century  which  no  one  can  treat  or  is 
competent  to  discuss  at  present.  It  was  not  until  OEdipus  had  ar- 
rived at  Thebes  and  actually  stood  before  the  Sphinx  that  he  so 
much  as  guessed  what  hor  riddle  would  be.  Its  solution  was  entirely 
hidden  until  after  she  had  spoken. 

It  may  be  further  remarked  that  the  survey  of  such  a  paper  as  the 
present  one  is  limited.  The  new  century  will  cover  the  whole  globe. 
Probably  countries  which  can  hardly  now  be  said  to  have  any  "so- 
ciety" will  develop  one,  and  each  its  own.  But  it  is  impossible  to 
predict  what  particular  problems  Christianity  will  have  to  grapple 


NEW    PROBLEMS    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  3 

■with  in  societies  which  are  yet  to  be.  Even  if  we  restrict  ourselves 
to  actually  existing  social  conditions  it  is  evident  that  the  problems 
to  be  met  in  modern  Italy  are  totally  different  from  those  in  Aus- 
tralia, and  that  those  in  the  regions  of  the  Evangelical  Church  in 
Bohemia  are  not  at  all  like  those  in  the  United  States.  To  deal 
with  the  social  conditions  of  the  whole  globe  and  the  distinct  prob- 
lems which  Christianity  and  its  pulpit  are  likely  to  encounter  in 
each  during  the  impending  century  would  require  the  study  of  a  life- 
time, and  would  be  to  write  not  a  paper  but  a  volume. 

These  three  limiting  conditions  must  control  the  course  of  the 
present  discussion.  Perhaps  it  ought  to  be  added  that,  on  the  very 
terms  of  the  topic,  satisfactory  and  full  solutions  are  not  to  be  ex- 
pected.    A  solved  problem  is  no  longer  a  problem. 

The  problems  which  confront  the  new  century  are  largely  those 
of  form.  Human  nature  is  the  same  in  every  age.  Revelation  has 
ceased  for  the  present,  at  least  in  that  aspect  of  it  in  which  "men 
spake  from  God,  being  borne  along  by  the  Holy  Ghost."  No  voice 
since  that  of  St.  John  fell  silent  at  Ephesus  has  spoken  with  the 
self-evidencing  authority  of  those  others  to  which  Christendom  has 
so  long  bent  unquestioning.  Accordingly,  so  far  as  can  be  now 
foreseen,  there  is  no  forthputting  of  new  material  to  be  expected. 
We  are  left  to  readjust  our  conceptions  of  the  old  and  to  modify  that 
which  is  on  hand  rather  than  to  invent  new.  Neither  David  nor  the 
Sibyl  testifies  in  these  days  to  anything  absolutely  hitherto  unknown. 
It  is  not,  therefore,  to  be  expected  that  the  questions  which  are  to 
arise  as  we  go  onward  should  be  entirely  novel,  but  that  they  should 
be  rather  problems  of  the  forms  with  which,  and  in  which,  the 
Christianity  of  the  twentieth  century  appears  likely  to  be  required  to 
meet  the  new  forms  of  opposition  and  the  exigencies  of  the  approach- 
ing days. 

These  new  problems  of  Christianity  and  its  pulpit  in  modern 
society  seems  to  be  of  its  form  of  application  to  that  society  itself — 
to  worship,  and  to  doctrine.     To  their  consideration  we  now  turn. 

I.  The  problem  first  to  be  studied,  then,  is  that  which  relates  to 
Society  itself  as  an  organism.  With  what  is  technically  called  so- 
ciology and  socialistic  questions  the  present  paper  is  not  especially 
called  to  deal,  because  they  are  handled  by  another  writer  in  this 
series  of  papers.  In  that  more  exact  sense,  no  doubt,  the  "Housing  of 
the  Poor,"  and  "Capital  and  Labor,"  are  two  problems  which  press 
most  heavily  on  the  heart  and  conscience  of  awakened  Christendom 


4  CHKISTENDOM. 

in  general.  These  are  essentially  modern.  In  the  days  of  serfdom 
no  one  cared,  not  even  the  serf,  about  the  rights  of  labor,  and  no  one 
was  comfortably  housed,  not  even  the  mediaeval  baron.  But  now, 
before  society — not  in  the  limited  sense  of  the  rich  and  cultured,  but 
in  the  wider  and  nobler  sense  of  the  brotherhood  of  man — can  rest 
in  comfort  and  satisfaction,  those  great  problems  must  be  settled 
finally  and  rightly.  Somehow  the  Golden  Eule  will  settle  it  for 
both ;  but  we  shall  have  to  wrestle  with  it  far  on  into  the  new  century 
to  all  appearance.     It  is  not  yet  a  solution :  it  is  a  problem. 

But  turning  from  these  aspects  of  the  question  as  having  been 
discussed  elsewhere  in  this  series  of  "Timely  Papers,"  there  are  other 
and  perhaps  even  wider  problems  which  Christianity  has  to  meet  be- 
fore the  year  A.  D.  2001  shall  dawn.  As  an  example  of  one  whole 
class  of  these  we  may  cite  the  mission  problem. 

"We  start  out  in  the  twentieth  century  with  new  conceptions  of 
the  Brotherhood  of  Man.  It  is  quite  true  that  these  conceptions  lie 
implicitly,  or  even  more  than  implied,  in  the  Christian  Scriptures. 
The  opening  words  of  the  "Lord's  Prayer"  have  the  whole  idea 
folded  compactly  in  them,  ready  to  unfold  until  it  fills  the  whole 
earth.  But  never  has  the  duty  and  enthusiasm  of  missions  been  so 
widely  recognized  or  the  sense  of  human  brotherhood  as  compelling 
to  missionary  effort  been  so  greatly  felt.  The  late  great  Ecumenical 
Conference  on  Missions,  held  in  the  city  of  New  York,  in  1900,  is  a 
signal  testimony  to  that  fact.  A  century  ago  such  a  conference 
would  have  been  literally  impossible;  but  the  very  progress  and 
triumph  of  missions  has  brought  us  face  to  face  with  new  problems 
which  the  new  century  must  at  least  try  to  solve. 

How  long  are  we  to  keep  converts  from  heathenism  in  leading- 
strings?  It  is  an  exceedingly  dithcult  question  to  decide.  When 
the  Apostles  and  apostolic  men  went  forth  on  their  early  mission  er- 
rands, as  recorded  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  they  seem  to  have 
labored  a  few  weeks,  or  at  most  months,  in  a  given  city,  and  then 
passed  on.  This  was  true  not  only  in  towns  where  they  preached 
among  Jews  who  had  some  previous  training  in  revealed  religion, 
but  also  in  those  where,  after  they  had  "turned  to  the  Gentiles,''  the 
community  was  wholly  heathen.  As  they  left  they  "ordained  elders 
in  every  city,"  and  with  only  an  occasional  re-visit  to  "confirm  the 
churches,"  or  a  rare  epistle,  they  were  left  to  their  own  devices.  No 
missionary  residences  were  built ;  no  colleges  or  academies  founded; 
no  hospitals   were  provided — other  than   "the  handkercliiefs  and 


NEW    PROBLEMS    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  5 

aprons  from  Ms  body"  by  which  St.  Paul  seems  to  have  done  some 
healing  work.  Everybody  knows  what  form  our  modern  mission 
work  has  taken  and  how  unlike  it  is  to  the  primitive  method  of 
church-planting.  No  doubt  our  way  was  the  best  for  the  last  cen- 
tury; was  necessitated  by  the  conditions,  and  has  justified  itself  by 
its  success  a  hundred  times  over.  But  now,  when  the  work  proceeds 
essentially  in  heathen  lands,  as  it  does  in  those  already  Christian,  is 
it  not  possible  that  the  impetus  of  the  nineteenth  century  has  spent 
its  useful  force?  It  does  not  follow  that  we  are  to  revert  to  first 
century  methods :  judging  by  analogy  we  are  not.  But  may  it  not  be 
that  the  twentieth  calls,  or  will  call,  for  a  new  method?  If  it  does 
and  the  question  is  put.  What  shall  it  be?  one  can  only  say,  "The 
twentieth  century  must  solve  it !" 

There  are  other  problems  connected  with  missions  over  which 
thoughtful  men  are  puzzling,  but  they  must  be  dropped  here  to  pass 
on  to  speak  of  some  quite  other  ones  which  are  likely  to  press  on  the 
practical  religious  life. 

II.  The  shapers  of  the  forms  of  Christianity  for  the  coming  cen- 
tury and  the  modern  church  pulpit  have  at  least  three  pressing  and 
imminent  problems  to  solve.  Perhaps  all  might  be  reduced  to  the  one 
immeasurable  problem  of  counteracting  the  indifference  which  pre- 
vails at  the  opening  of  the  new  epoch.  ^Vhen  Christianity  began  it 
had  to  contend  with  violent  physical  opposition.  Even  in  the  book 
of  the  Acts  there  are  signs  of  persecution  beginning  to  set  its  knees 
on  the  new  religion  to  break  its  ribs  by  violence.  Not  only  at  Jeru- 
salem, where,  as  the  headquarters  of  Jewish  prejudice  and  wrong 
judgment,  bigoted  cruelty  might  have  been  expected,  but  also  abroad 
in  heathen  but  civilized  cities,  Paul  and  Silas  and  Barnabas  woke 
by  their  evangelical  preaching  a  storm  of  bitter  and  active  opposi- 
tion. Under  Nero,  Trajan,  Decius  and  Diocletian  the  violence  cul- 
minated in  the  "great  persecutions"  wide  as  the  Rorrian  Empire. 
The  second  great  era  of  opposition  was  that  of  "Free  Thought,"  the 
age  of  the  infidels,  the  era  of  spiritual  opposition.  The  press  poured 
forth  a  black  flood  of  literature  scoffing  at  the  ideas  which  genera- 
tions of  Christians  had  found  most  grave  and  venerable.  Those 
were  the  two  eras  of  active  opposition.  In  these  days  all  that  vio- 
lence, physical  and  intellectual,  has  subsided  like  retiring  floods,  and 
the  opposition  which,  confronts  the  Church  of  God  to-day  is  that  of 
indifference.  Men  do  not  care  for,  have  no  interest  in,  religious 
things.     They  no  longer  blaspheme  the  name  of  the  Christ  and  fling 


6  CHRISTENDOM. 

filth  at  Christians.  They  just  go  their  ways  as  if  there  were  no 
Christ.  We  sonjetimes  sadly  say  that  the  church  has  lost  its  grip  on 
the  masses;  we  might  more  truly  say  that  the  masses  have  let  go 
their  grip  on  the  church! 

But  let  us  look  a  little  more  in  detail  at  the  conditions  which  it  is 
our  problem  to  overcome.  Perhaps  we  might  legitimately  put  the 
re-setting  of  the  Bible  as  the  first  problem  of  the  Christianity  of  the 
twentieth  century. 

That  Book  has  never  been  so  studied  as  in  the  closing  years  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  but  it  has  been  studied  in  a  peculiar  way.  This 
is  not  the  place  to  discuss  the  question  of  the  higher  criticism,  nor  is 
it  much  to  the  present  purpose  whether  its  pending  views  are  to  be 
permanent  conclusions  or  not.  Without  at  all  touching  on  that 
aspect  of  the  matter  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  study  lately 
bestowed  on  the  Scriptures  has  either  loosened  the  popular  faith  in 
them  as  the  final  and  indisputable  Word  of  God,  or  else  has  made 
the  study  of  them  principally  a  critical  exercise.  It  is  easy  to  see 
why  this  is  so;  but  no  one  mixing  with  his  fellow  men  throughout 
Christendom  can  fail  to  see  that  the  result  has  been  that  the  general 
feeling  is  that  there  is  no  standard  of  absolute  authority  in  either 
doctrine  or  social  ethics  whose  word  is  accepted  as  the  end  of  con- 
troversy. 

No  doubt  this  state  of  things  wiU  right  itself  in  time.  The 
Christian  mind  will  re-adJust  itself  to  such  new  decisions  about 
the  outward  form  of  revelation  as  shall  ultimately  be  fixed  beyond 
dispute  and  transferred  conclusively  from  hypothesis  to  fact.  Many 
things  now  in  suspense  as  between  the  old  and  new  views  will  settle 
back  on  the  old  foundations  when  once  the  rocking  of  the  passing 
wind  is  over. 

Meantime  the  problem  of  the  new  century  will  be  to  secure  a 
deeper  study  of  the  Word  than  that  which  has  agitated  the  old  one ; 
to  induce  a  spiritual  treatment  of  the  great  Book  as  soon  as  the 
critical  treatment  of  it  is  settled  so  as  to  stay  settled.  Somehow 
the  new  era  must  manage  it  or  the  Bible  will  be  gone  as  a  force 
making  for  Christian  living.  It  needs  no  prophet  to  say  how  disas- 
trous to  all  earnest  and  Christ-like  religious  conditions  it  would  be 
to  have  the  race  virtually  without  a  line  from  its  Father  in 
Heaven. 

The  next  point  to  be  noted  relates  to  the  new  problems  of  wor- 
ship.    There  are  two  elements  to  be  considered,  viz.,  the  Day  of 


NEW    PKOBLEMS    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  7 

worship,  and  Worship  itself;  the  latter  falling  apart  into  two  sub- 
divisions. 

First  comes  the  Sunday  problem.  Historically,  the  observance  of 
the  Lord's  Day  among  Jewish  Christian  converts  began,  no  doubt, 
as  a  voluntary  addition  to  the  Sabbath.  The  latter,  received  from 
Moses,  was  still  considered  binding  on  the  ancient  covenant  people, 
even  if  they  had  become  disciples  of  Jesus  the  Jew.  For  His  sake 
they  added  to  the  faithful  observance  of  the  seventh  that  of  the  first 
day  of  the  week  in  memorial  of  His  resurrection.  Among  heathen 
Christian  converts  the  Lord's  Day  was  the  only  sacred  day,  of  course, 
but  it  was  wholly  voluntary  as  among  the  Jewish  ones.  In  the  next 
stage  its  observance  became  a  sort  of  badge  of  Christian  discipleship, 
and  popular  sentiment  soon  made  it  virtually  obligatory  on  all  who 
professed  to  walk  in  "the  way."  Then  came  Constantine,  with  his 
enlargement  of  Christian  obligation  along  civil  and  governmental 
lines,  and  Sunday  observance  became  a  civil  as  well  as  religious 
law.  The  mixture  of  the  two  sentiments  by  medieval  times,  and 
indeed  long  before,  made  the  observance  of  the  day  both  enforced 
and  formal.  The  Reformation,  with  its  new  and  deeper  spiritual 
impulse,  made  its  subjects  eager  for  the  religious  opportunities  of 
the  Lord's  Day,  emphasizing  Sunday  observance  as  a  privilege.  In 
Great  Britain,  for  reasons  so  familiar  that  they  need  not  be  recounted 
here,  the  Puritan  Sabbath  came  in  with  its  stringencies,  voluntary  at 
first,  but  soon  made  obligatory  when  Puritanism  had  the  power. 
Even  after  Puritanism  had  lost  its  initial  force  as  a  spiritual  move- 
ment, ingrained  habit  stamped  deeply  into  the  consciences  of  the 
communities  where  it  had  once  held  undisputed  sway  the  custom  of 
the  outward  observance  of  the  Lord's  Day.  Long  after  the  laws 
on  the  matter  ceased  to  be  enforced,  it  was  not  quite  respectable  not 
to  go  to  church. 

That  feeling  has  about  disappeared.  The  old  Sabbath  has  gone. 
Multitudes  of  men  and  women  have  no  conscience  about  it  any 
longer.  It  is  not  simply  the  abandoned,  heaven-defying  old  "Sab- 
bath breaker"  of  the  Sunday-school  library  books  of  a  generation  or 
two  ago,  but  it  is  respectable,  decent,  moral  people  who  now  de- 
liberately arrange  to  travel  on  Sunday  trains  to  save  business  time; 
who  throng  the  Sunday  roads  with  automobiles  and  bicycles;  who 
give  dinner  parties  and  play  golf  on  the  first  day  of  the  week  with- 
out a  prick  of  their  consciences.  Not  long  since  the  summons  of 
a  cycle  club  to  a  "run"  on  Sunday,  in  an  American  city,  brought 


8  CHEISTENDOM. 

together  by  actual  count  seven  hundred  wheelmen.  How  many  con- 
gregations of  that  number  assembled  in  the  churches  of  the  town  that 
day? 

And  yet  God's  Fourth  Commandment  has  never  been  revoked  any 
more  than  any  of  the  other  nine  of  the  Decalogue.  We  need  not 
sigh  over  the  vanishing  of  the  Puritan  Sabbath ;  there  is  no  passage 
of  the  Scripture  which  ever  enjoined  it.  But  God's  Word  does  put 
a  difference  between  His  Day  and  ours.  How  are  we  going  to  get 
the  Fourth  Commandment  on  its  feet  again?  lliat  is  a  problem 
the  new  century  must  not  only  grapple  with  but  solve,  or  the  curse 
solemnly  pronounced  on  the  wilful  desecrators  of  the  day  which  God 
has  "hallowed"  will  fall  on  those  nations  which  will  not  "reverence 
My  Sabbaths."  It  is  too  early  in  the  century  to  say  how  the  end 
shall  be  gained  and  the  solution  wrought  safely  out.  All  that  can 
be  done  now  is  to  blow  a  solemn  trumpet  of  alarm. 

Turning  next  to  consider  the  new  problems  of  worship,  we  come 
first  on  that  of  family  religion. 

There  is  a  solemn  doom  pronounced  in  the  Bible  on  "the  families 
which  call  not  on  My  Name."  There  are  certainly  few  families  left 
who  do  it  in  the  old-fashioned  way.  The  "family  altar,"  as  the 
elder  religionists  used  to  call  it,  has  been  rent  in  two  like  that  of 
Jeroboam,  and  its  ashes  poured  out  to  grow  cold.  Of  course  it  can 
be  accounted  for.  Modern  life,  with  its  haste  and  drive,  its  thou- 
sand new  interests,  shortens  the  available  time  in  a  way  of  which 
our  more  leisurely  fathers  never  dreamed.  The  old  opportunities 
and  facilities  for  parental  religious  instruction,  for  the  assembling 
of  the  household  around  the  parental  priest,  are  all  gone.  It  does 
not  seem  as  if  they  ever  could  return.  It  was  a  beautiful  observ- 
ance in  its  day.  Men  who  made  no  religious  profession,  like  Burns 
in  his  "Cotter's  Saturday  Night,"  felt  the  charm.  Long  after  the 
voice  of  the  parent-priest  was  silent  in  death,  the  children  grown  to 
maturity  testified  to  the  beneficent  effect  of  family  worship.  But 
while  the  present  pace  keeps  up  and  even  augments,  with  the  old 
habit  thoroughly  broken  up  and  the  old  facility  of  immemorial  prac- 
tice gone,  how  can  it  be  reinstated  ?  Yet  something  must  be  done  to 
replace  it,  or  individual  religion  will  perish  with  that  of  the  family. 
Some  new  form  must  be  found  into  which  the  old  life  can  be  poured 
or  it  will  perish  from  the  earth.  With  that  problem,  too,  the  twen- 
tieth century  must  grapple  and  solve  it  as  the  condition  of  its  spiri- 
tual life. 


NEW    PROBLEMS    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  9 

But  turn  again  from  that  to  public  worship.  All  over  Christen- 
dom, with  few  exceptions,  the  nineteenth  century  has  seen  a  notable 
diminution  of  attendance  on  public  worship.  Few  churches  are 
Thronged  at  any  time,  and  the  '"second  service"  has  become  the  de- 
spair of  most  pastors.  For  a  while  the  latter  service  may  be  filled 
up  by  special  music,  or  sensational  topics  of  discourse,  or  by  the 
magic  lantern.  Yet  not  only  do  these  things  soon  lose  their  power 
to  draw  a  crowd,  but  even  while  their  attraction  lasts  it  is  the  gravest 
of  questions  whether  any  real  spiritual  benefit  or  upbuilding  in  con- 
secration and  depth  of  spiritual  life  accrues. 

So  the  problem  challenges  the  new  century,  and  asks  what  it  will 
do  about  it.  If  Christ's  own  people  have  lost  their  interest  in  the 
"assembling  of  themselves  together,'^  it  can  hardly  be  expected  that 
those  who  are  not  in  covenant  will  attend.  Add  to  it  all  the  facts 
that  outside  of  the  ranks  of  professing  Christians  the  vast  majority 
of  the  people  hold  an  attitude  of  absolute  and  unfeigned  indiffer- 
ence, and  yet  that  by  virtue  of  living  in  Christian  lands  they  are 
sufficiently  instructed  in  religious  truths  for  them  to  hrfve  lost  all 
their  novelty,  and  how  prodigious  is  the  problem  for  which  Chris- 
tianity and  its  pulpit  in  the  twentieth  century  have  to  find  a  solu- 
tion. 

One  does  not  have  to  search  far  to  account  for  this  prevalent  in- 
difference. Life  is  harder  than  it  was,  and  people  are  fagged  and 
wearied.  They  crave  either  rest  or  excitement — mostly  the  latter. 
In  former  times  the  pulpit  was  the  lyceum  and  university  of  the 
masses.  It  refreshed  the  latter  to  come  in  contact  with  a  trained 
mind  dealing  with  topics  on  which  they  might  stretch  themselves 
for  intellectual  as  well  as  spiritual  gymnastics  as  they  eagerly  list- 
ened. Nowadays  books,  newspapers,  periodicals,  these  keep  men 
overwhelmed  with  new  facts  and  intellectual  interest.  Besides  all 
this,  the  age  is  material,  and  things  which  are  spiritual  are  remote 
from  their  "hearts  and  bosoms."  Perhaps,  too,  in  explaining  the 
neglect  of  the  "second  service,"  we  may  note  that  men  weary  of 
monotony.  Te  repeat  the  morning's  process  at  night  is  unattractive. 
Breakfast  is  good,  but  who  wants  two  breakfasts  exactly  alike  in 
one  day  ? 

This  much,  however,  we  may  say  toward  the  solution :  God  does  not 
intend  that  the  church  of  His  dear  Son  shall  run  out  by  self-limita- 
tion. He  has  said  that  the  gates  of  Hades  shall  not  prevail  against  it. 
The  church  is  not  to  grow  less  and  less  effective  and  efficient,  and 


10  CHRISTENDOM. 

run  down  like  an  electric  lamp  whose  battery  has  polarized.  Never- 
theless, the  details  of  its  operation  He  has  assigned  to  His  co-laborers 
on  the  earth.  The  new  century  must  find  out  for  itself  what  to  do. 
That  is  its  problem.  Shall  it  be  by  some  widespread  outpouring 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  ?  Shall  it  be  by  the  personal  work  of  each  pres- 
ent Christian  taking  the  careless  by  the  hand  and  "compelling  him 
to  come  in"  by  sympathetic  love  for  his  soul?  Shall  it  be  by 
throwing  away  entirely  our  present  time-worn  forms  of  public  wor- 
ship, and  initiating  a  wholly  new  departure?  Or  is  it  to  be  along 
lines  now  utterly  unthought  of,  but  which  the  twentieth  century 
shall  reveal? 

The  twentieth  century  will  have  to  answer.  But  one  thing  is 
sure :  It  will  be  the  form  and  not  the  essence  of  worship  which  will 
change,  if  there  is  to  be  change  at  all. 

There  remains  still  another  problem  which  will  have  to  be  solved, 
and  which  must  be  discussed  here  with  only  a  few  closing  words. 
It  is  that  of  doctrine. 

Here,  too,  one  may  safely  venture  to  predict  that  it  is  going  to 
be  a  change  of  form  rather  than  of  content.  It  was  Carlyle  who 
spoke  of  the  changes  of  views  of  religious  truth  as  the  laying  aside 
of  worn-out  garments.  "Hebrew  old  clothes,"  he  called  the  system 
which  gave  place  to  Cliristianity,  and  he  thought  the  latter — as  the 
nineteenth  century  knew  it — was  already  mostly  rags  soon  to  be 
discarded  for  brand  new  outfits  of  Christian  doctrine.  Most  of  us 
do  not  agree  with  him,  but  certainly  there  has  been  much  in  the 
religious  discussions  of  the  later  years  of  the  vanished  century  which 
has  looked  as  if  Confession  and  Creeds  might  soon  be  either  in  the 
waste-basket  or  the  fire. 

But  discussions  never  alter  truth.  Glass  is  hard,  but  it  scratches 
no  diamonds.  When  John  Eobinson,  speaking  to  the  Pilgrims  as 
they  started  from  Leyden  for  Cape  Cod,  said  that  he  had  no  doubt 
"there  would  be  more  light  breaking  from  God's  Word,"  he  was  not 
saying,  as  he  has  too  often  been  interpreted  as  saying,  that  new 
truth  obliterating  the  old,  or  new  facts  at  variance  with  older  ones, 
would  be  discovered.  He  meant  only  that  which  he  actually  said, 
namely,  that  new  light  would  break,  and  at  that  not  from  new  re- 
velations, but  from  and  on  the  old,  well-searched  Word.  There  are 
no  new  doctrines  or  new  facts  or  new  revelations  lying  perdue  there. 
The  content  of  dogmatic  revelation  will  not  ever  change.  Even  if 
new  books  shall  be  added  to  the  sacred  canon — of  which  there  is  no 


NEW  PEOBLEMS  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  11 

sign  either  from  within  or  from  witliout  the  volume  at  present — no 
contradictory  or  annulling  doctrine  can  be  introduced. 

But  that  is  not  to  say  that  the  form  of  the  now  familiar  truth 
may  not  be  modified.  The  new  century  may  find  that  dogmas  which 
fallible  theologians  have  deduced  from  Scripture  by  fallible  logic 
may  have  to  be  dropped  entirely.  At  all  events,  "the  Word  of  God 
standeth  sure,"  and  has  His  seal.  No  doctrine  unmistakably  set 
down  therein  will  grow  obsolete. 

Yet  men  do  grow.  They  grow  wiser  and  broader  and  more  mel- 
low. So  do  generations.  It  is  quite  within  the  range  of  possibility 
that  before  the  twenty-first  century  begins  to  dawn  on  the  then  dark- 
ening eastern  sky  of  the  twentieth,  a  new  light  may  rise.  It  will- 
be  the  task  of  the  twentieth  before  it  passes  on  to  "prove  all  things, 
to  hold  fast  that  which  is  good."  If  the  doctrines  and  dogmas  of 
Christianity  have  to  be  modified,  as  some  predict,  it  will  be  the 
solemn  duty  of  the  now  new  century  to  change  the  form,  and  hold 
fast  the  substance  of  the  teachings  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  It  is  too  soon 
to  say  what  changes  may  be  necessary,  or  even  that  any  will  be.  If 
the  latter,  it  is  equally  too  early  to  suggest  what  shape  they  ought  to 
take ;  above  all,  what  shape  they  will  take.  But  of  one  thing  we  who 
are  not  to  survive  the  new  era  may  be  sure  as  we  lie  down  to  rest  and 
wait  with  Daniel — the  twentieth  century  will  not  itself  go  down 
with  its  setting  sun  looking  out  on  the  wrecks  of  truths  on  which 
God's  saints  have  stood  to  fight  His  battles,  and  on  which  they  have 
pillowed  their  dying  heads  in  every  age.  XJzzah  will  have  no  need 
to  steady  the  Ark. 


SOME  GAINS  OF  CHRISTIANITY  IN  THE 
NINETEENTH  CENTURY. 


President  John  Henry  Barrows,  D.D., 

OBERLIN. 

Christianity  means,  in  the  treatment  given  by  this  essay,  the 
interpretation  and  realization  by  Christendom  of  the  teaching  of 
Jesus  Christ.  There  has  been  progress  during  the  last  hundred 
years  along  many  lines — theological,  ecclesiastical  and  practical. 
The  Christendom  of  to-day  is  a  larger  and  completer  realization  of 
the  spirit  and  doctrine  of  Jesus  Christ  than  was  the  Christendom 
of  the  year  1801,  when  the  century  began.  This  will  be  apparent  to 
all  minds  not  blinded  by  theories  of  the  world's  increasing  degen- 
eracy. It  is  not  claimed  that  the  church  is  approaching  perfection, 
or  that,  in  every  particular,  Christendom  has  advanced  a  long  step 
during  the  last  ten  decades.  Still,  a  comprehensive  survey  of  the 
changes  of  the  century  will  reveal  the  fact  that  Christianity  has 
made  notable  gains. 

The  Christian  Church,  taken  as  a  whole,  is  more  aggressive  in 
its  effort  to  reach  all  men  with  the  heavenly  Gospel ;  it  is  more  gen- 
erally imbued  with  the  missionary  spirit,  which  is  the  essential 
Christian  spirit.  It  may  be  that  we  have  only  played  at  missions  in 
the  last  hundred  years,  but  it  has  been  the  most  inspiring  and  benefi- 
cent play  which  the  race  has  ever  seen.  In  America  the  domain  of 
a  Christian  civilization  has  been  expanded  to  a  continental  area. 
Many  savage  tribes  have  been  evangelized.  The  Bible  has  been  dis- 
tributed by  hundreds  of  thousands  of  copies  in  Mexican,  Central 
American  and  South  American  lands.  At  the  beginning  of  the  cen- 
tury the  entire  slave  population  of  the  South  was  excluded  from  a 
reading  knowledge  of  the  Scriptures.  At  the  beginning  of  the  cen- 
tury only  a  small  beginning  had  been  made  in  what  is  now  the 
world-wide  movement  of  Christian  evangelism.  Church  after 
church  has  been  enlisted  in  the  Foreign  Missionary  Crusade.  Mil- 
lions of  dollars  are  now  annually  contributed  for  that  cause,  which 
Dr.  Wayland  pronounced  "the  sublimest  that  ever  awakened  the 

12 


GAINS    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  13 

hopes  and  called  forth  the  moral  energies  of  mankind."  The  Young 
Men's  Christian  Associations,  the  societies  of  like  spirit  for  young 
women,  the  great  Christian  Endeavor  movement,  and  the  Student 
Volunteer  movement,  are  imbued  with  missionary  enthusiasm,  and 
probably  fifty  persons  stand  ready  to-day  to  undertake  service  in 
non-Christian  lands  where  one  could  be  found  at  the  beginning  of 
the  century.  In  the  churches  of  Great  Britain,  Germany,  Switzer- 
land, Scandinavia  and  France  there  has  been  growing,  to  large  pro- 
portions in  some  cases,  a  sense  of  responsibility  to  the  unevangelized 
world.  Christendom  to-day  is  more  cosmopolitan  than  ever  before. 
Our  religion  for  the  first  time  presents  the  aspect  of  a  world-wide 
faith,  and  this  is  due  to  the  out-reaching  efforts  which  have  sprung 
from  missionary  zeal. 

No  one  can  return  from  a  careful  inspection  of  the  moral  and 
spiritual  conditions  of  the  great  continents  without  a  new  convic- 
tion that  Christianity  is  an  aggressive  and  elevating  force  in  every 
part  of  the  world.  Japan  owes  the  beginning  of  her  industrial,  com- 
mercial, political  and  moral  regeneration  to  Christian  influences, 
and  Japan  is  likely  to  be  one  of  the  dominant  Christian  forces  of 
Asia.  Korea  is  passing  through  a  similar  transformation.  The 
Chinese  Empire  is  rapidly  being  leavened  with  influences  of  Chris- 
tian origin,  and  the  advent  of  America  into  the  Orient  as  an  Asiatic 
power  means  much  more  for  the  future  enlightenment  and  uplifting 
of  the  greatest  of  the  continents.  The  Pacific  Ocean,  which  is  to  dom- 
inate the  future  of  the  world,  is  surrounded  and  crossed  by  Chris- 
tian forces.  It  is  something  to  have  made  a  difficult,  magnificent, 
historical  beginning.  No  other  religion  presents  any  such  world- 
wide aspect  to-day  as  Christianity.  The  nineteenth  century  made 
the  cosmopolitanism  of  the  Christian  Gospel  apparent  to  the  leading 
minds  of  all  nations.  On  every  shore  to-day  Christianity  is  a  vital 
and  progressive  force.  The  world  has  been  made  ready  through  in- 
ternational communication,  through  a  friendlier  feeling  toward 
Christians,  through  a  new  knowledge,  which  discriminates  between 
a  true  and  a  false  Christianity,  through  a  better  understanding  of 
the  living  spirit  of  the  time — for  a  universal  faith. 

Parallel  with  this  out-reaching  activity,  which  has  marked  the 
hundred  years  now  past,  has  been  an  in-reaching  effort  to  get  closer 
to  the  heart  of  Christianity.  There  was  large  dissatisfaction  at  the 
beginning  of  the  century  with  many  of  the  forms  and  statements  of 
the  historic  churches.     This  dissatisfaction  has  increased  in  a  meas- 


14  CHRISTENDOM. 

ure.  Theological  controversy  and  the  coming  in  of  new  light  hare 
not  only  led  to  skepticism,  but  have  also  led  to  more  careful  study 
of  the  sources  of  Christianity.  The  result  has  been  a  return  to 
Christ.  Never  before  have  there  been  so  many  means  of  getting 
truly  acquainted  with  the  Founder  of  Christianity.  The  lives  of 
Jesus  Christ  belong,  almost  all  of  them,  to  the  present  century.  The 
study  of  manuscripts  of  ancient  contemporary  history,  and  of  that 
fifth  Gospel,  the  Holy  Land  itself,  has  thrown  a  dazzling  light  upon 
the  person  of  Jesus  Christ,  making  the  Gospel  records  more  living 
and  luminous.  It  may  be  truly  said  of  the  latter  part  of  our  cen- 
tury that  it  has  lived  with  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  In  some  respects 
we  knew  Him  better  than  did  His  early  followers.  There  is  a  grow- 
ing conviction  that  He  is  God's  last  and  best  manifestation  of  Him- 
self ;  that  in  His  light  we  see  light  for  all  the  chief  problems  of  hu- 
man existence;  that  knowing  Him  we  know  Christianity;  that  He 
is  the  Way,  the  Truth  and  the  Life. 

It  is  inevitable  that  the  Bible  should  be  better  understood  than  it 
was  a  hundred  years  ago.  No  other  book  has  received  such  pro- 
longed and  such  profound  investigation.  It  has  been  attacked  as 
untrustworthy  and  even  as  immoral.  Science  has  been  arrayed 
against  it,  but  the  period  when  controversy  over  its  claims  has  been 
sharpest  has  been  the  period  when  its  true  Divinity  has  become  most 
apparent.  To-day  it  is  not  only  not  outgrown  or  obsolescent,  but  it 
is  a  force  of  Divine  life  more  penetrating  and  pervasive  than  ever 
before.  When  understood  as  the  ripest  Christian  scholarship  of  to- 
day understands  it,  the  Bible  is  not  exposed  to  many  of  the  ob- 
jections which  skepticism  has  made.  It  is  seen  to  be  the  spiritual 
literature  of  a  Divinely  guided  people,  which  has  come  to  us  under 
a  variety  of  forms,  expressed  in  language  which  can  be  translated 
into  all  languages,  universal  in  its  adaptations  and  permanent  in  its 
influence,  because  it  is  a  book  of  dynamics,  a  literature  of  life  speak- 
ing through  object-lessons  to  the  deepest  needs  of  the  human  soul. 
Its  comparison  with  Sacred  Books  of  other  nations  simply  reveals 
the  supremacy  and  sufficiency,  the  uniqueness  and  authority  of  that 
revelation  which  came  to  Israel  and  was  completed  in  Jesus  Christ. 

Another  gain  of  Christianity  in  the  century,  springing  veiy  large- 
ly out  of  the  return  to  Jesus  Christ,  has  been  the  discovery  of  Chris- 
tians that  He  binds  tliem  together  in  spiritual  fellowship.  Chris- 
tianity has  been  found  to  be  larger  than  any  creed  or  church,  be- 
cause it  is  id(!ntical  with  Him  who  is  the  fullness  of  knowledge,  of 


GAINS    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  15 

light  and  of  love.  Churches  which  have  been  kept  apart  by  the 
memory  of  old-time  divisions,  by  masses  of  ecclesiastical  and  theo- 
logical rubbish,  by  an  unintelligent  conservatism,  ill-founded  fears 
and  a  lack  of  brotherliness,  have  been  drawing  closer  together.  They 
have  been  educated  in  those  higher  truths,  living  by  which  men^ 
are  caring  less  and  less  for  minor  distinctions.  At  the  beginning  of 
the  century  how  far  apart,  in  America  and  Great  Britain,  were  the 
various  churches,  how  strong  was  the  antipathy  of  churchmen  and 
nonconformists,  of  Congregationalists  and  Methodists,  and  how 
wide  was  the  antagonism  between  Protestants  and  Catholics !  The 
chasms  have  not  been  filled  up,  but  they  have  been  here  and  there 
bridged  over.  Among  Protestant  churches,  to  a  hopeful  degree,  the 
noises  of  discord  are  being  drowned  in  the  notes  of  concord.  The 
centrifugal  forces  which  have  wrought  a  good  work  are  dying  down 
and  giving  way  to  centripetal  forces.  One  may  discover  no  single 
church  on  the  face  of  the  earth  to  which  all  disciples  acknowledge 
allegiance,  but  there  is  a  rapidly  increasing  unity  in  Jesus  Christ. 
When  Dean  Stanley  was  a  young  student  at  Oxford,  he  walked  one 
day  with  another  student,  a  High  Churchman,  and  passed  by  a  Dis- 
senting Chapel.  Seeing  it,  his  High  Church  friend  said:  "How 
could  it  have  been  built  here?  I  wonder  that  they  did  not  pull  it 
down  long  ago."  The  Christians  of  to-day  who  are  anxious  to 
have  the  churches  of  other  forms  and  faiths  pulled  down  are  not 
alarmingly  numerous.  In  some  communities  they  will  soon  be  so 
few  as  to  seem  like  curiosities. 

Most  thinking  men  have  come  to  realize  that  tolerance  is  a  word 
representing  an  imperfect  spirit  in  regard  to  the  rights  of  the  hu- 
man mind.  Governments  which  may  tolerate,  would  seem  to  reserve 
the  right  to  persecute.  "The  most  despotic  governments  are  toler- 
ant toward  the  subjects  who  are  too  numerous  or  too  useful  to  be 
killed  or  exiled."  But  toleration  is  a  stepping-stone  to  liberty.  No 
sensible  man,  acquainted  with  the  facts,  can  fail  to  realize  that  the 
-  wide  growth  of  toleration  is  one  of  the  most  important  facts  of  the 
century.  Wherever  we  look,  whether  to  Eussia  or  to  Italy,  to  Ger- 
many or  South  Africa,  to  Great  Britain  or  China,  to  France  or 
Austria,  we  behold  the  area  of  toleration,  and  hence  of  religious 
liberty,  widening.  In  the  German  Empire  the  progress  of  tolera- 
tion has  been  conspicuous,  so  that,  according  to  Dr.  Schaff,  the  great 
Teutonic  realm  "is  committed  to  the  principles  of  religious  liberty 
and  equality  as  much  as  the  United  States,  and  can  as  little  inter- 


16  CHRISTENDOM. 

fere  with  religious  convictions  and  the  exercise  of  public  worship,  or 
deny  to  any  citizen  his  civil  and  political  rights  on  account  of  his 
religious  opinions." 

In  Austria  the  history  of  religious  progress,  beginning  in  1848, 
culminates  with  the  law  of  18G8,  which  granted  full  liberty  of  re- 
ligion, but  a  liberty  limited  to  the  churches  recognized  by  the  Gov- 
ernment. Whether  that  freedom  is  enjoyed  or  not  depends  largely 
upon  the  sentiment  of  local  authorities.  Toleration  and  freedom 
have  still  other  victories  to  be  won  in  Austria.  In  Italy  the  Wal- 
denses  were  emancipated  in  that  year,  1848,  which  marks  a  new  era 
of  religious  progress  throughout  Europe.  The  constitutions  granted 
at  that  memorable  epoch  guaranteed  the  free  exercise  of  divine  wor- 
ship. Since  1870  the  Free  Italian  churches  and  many  others  have 
sprung  into  life,  and  a  new  leaven  is  working  for  the  emancipation 
of  the  Italian  mind.  In  Spain  religious  liberty  dates  its  feeble  be- 
ginnings from  1869.  Concessions  are  neutralized  by  certain  restric- 
tions, for  the  constitution  of  1876  limits  the  liberty  of  those  who 
are  not  Catholics  to  worship  in  private  houses.  Switzerland  comes 
nearest  to  America  in  religious  freedom.  In  France  the  Catholic, 
Protestant  and  Jewish  churches  have  been  placed  on  a  level  before 
the  law.  The  right  of  assembly  and  teaching  is  legally  unques- 
tioned, and  the  Protestant  missionaries  are  able  to  go  everywhere  in 
France  and  carry  on  their  zealous  propagandism. 

Professor  Bonet-Maury  sums  up  his  history  with  the  statements 
that,  "Since  the  Edict  of  Toleration  of  Louis  XVI,  in  spite  of  some 
offensive  returns  to  the  gloomy  idea  of  religion  in  the  state,  the 
spirit  of  tolerance,  or  better,  of  respect  for  liberty  of  conscience,  has 
grown."  "Violent  procedures  by  civil  powers  against  individuals  or 
societies  on  account  of  their  philosophical  or  religious  beliefs  have 
become  more  and  more  rare." 

In  Holland  and  Scandinavia,  even  with  church  establishments, 
perfect  religious  equality  is  enjoyed.  And  by  the  treaty  of  Berlin, 
1878,  the  Sultan's  Government  was  forced  to  this  position,  that  in 
no  part  of  the  Ottoman  Empire  shall  differences  of  religion  be  al- 
leged against  any  person  as  a  ground  for  exclusion  or  incapacity  as 
regards  the  discharge  of  civil  and  political  rights,  admission  to  the 
public  employments,  functions  and  honors,  or  the  exercise  of  the 
various  professions  and  industries. 

The  British  Empire — I  am  now  speaking  of  what  lies  beyond  the 
British  Islands — is  the  widest  domain  of  tolerance  on  which  the  sun 


GAINS    OF    CHEISTIANITY.  17 

shines.  That  empire  has  been  called  "the  hiigest  outstanding  parlia- 
ment of  religions  now  existing  in  the  world."  In  Australia,  New 
Zealand,  South  Africa,  the  Dominion  of  Canada  and  throughout  the 
broad  and  populous  peninsula  of  India,  full  liberty  of  conscience 
and  all  the  rights  of  spiritual  freedom  are  enjoyed.  When  we  look 
at  England  itself,  we  are  compelled  to  remember  that  her  great  act 
of  religious  freedom  is  the  Act  of  Toleration  of  1689,  and  that  this 
was  not  an  edict  of  liberty.  Englishmen  at  that  time  did  not  believe 
in  religious  freedom.  But  inevitably  that  Act  of  Toleration  led  to 
a  large  enjoyment  of  the  rights  of  conscience,  and  during  our  cen- 
tury its  benefits  have  been  extended  to  Unitarians,  Catholics  and 
Jews.  The  disestablishment  of  the  Church  of  England  in  Ireland 
was  a  great  step  in  the  right  direction,  and  with  the  surely  coming 
disestablishment  of  the  church  in  Scotland,  Wales  and  England, 
the  area  of  liberty  will  be  enlarged. 

The  idea  of  toleration  has  been  enlarged  by  the  official  action  of 
China  in  granting  to  the  different  European  nations  the  right  of 
sending  Christian  missionaries,  not  only  to  the  port  cities,  but  to 
the  interior  of  that  vast  empire.  The  Chinese  Government  has  given 
repeated  assurance  of  its  belief  that  the  doctrines  of  Christianity 
and  the  practice  of  them  were  for  good.  The  recent  fanatical  up- 
rising of  those  who  hate  all  foreign  influences  will  not  permanently 
diminish  the  area  of  religious  liberty  in  the  Far  East.  No  sensible 
man  believes  that  the  Christian  nations  will  permit  any  abrogation 
of  rights  guaranteed  by  international  treaty.  In  Mexico  religious 
toleration  is  a  part  of  the  new  life  of  that  prosperous  republic ;  even 
in  priest-ridden  South  America,  the  rights  of  non-Catholic  citizens 
have  received  new  guarantees,  or  have  been  acknowledged  for  the 
first  time — in  Ecuador,  Bolivia,  Peru  and  elsewhere. 

America  is  the  great  home,  not  so  much  of  toleration  as  of  true 
liberty.  In  the  United  States  the  Government  has  no  authority 
to  interfere  with  religion.  The  fullest  liberty  is  possible  only  where 
the  church  and  state  separate.  From  the  beginning  of  our  organ- 
ized national  life  this  separation  has  prevailed  and  been  the  funda- 
mental law  and  practice  of  our  country.  Here  the  Jews  have  had 
freedom,  and  have  been  treated  with  a  friendliness  never  elsewhere 
shown  them.  America  is  the  standing  reply  to  those  who  believe 
that  religion  needs  the  support  and  guidance  of  the  state.  Chris- 
tian progress  in  our  country  has  been  more  rapid  than  the  progress 
of  the  population,  and  it  is  as  true  to-day  as  when  De  Tocqueville 


18  CHRISTENDOM. 

wrote  that :  "There  is  no  country  in  the  whole  world  in  which  the 
Christian  religion  retains  a  greater  influence  over  the  souls  of  men 
than  in  America." 

When  complete  religious  liberty  exists,  toleration  becomes  not  a 
legal  but  a  mental  and  moral  condition.  It  is  a  state  of  mind,  and 
the  most  remarkable  advance  has  been  in  the  kindlier  feelings  be- 
tween men  of  various  faiths  and  various  divisions  of  the  same  faith. 
James  Grant  Allen,  in  his  "Eeign  of  Law/'  recalls  the  time  in  the 
last  century  when  Christians  used  to  throw  live  snakes  into  the 
assemblies  of  other  Christians  of  whom  they  disapproved.  Snake- 
throwing  has  disappeared.  Occasional  acts  of  intolerance  occur, 
but  they  are  opposed  to  the  almost  universal  sentiment  of  the  coun- 
try. Bigotry,  or  the  worship  of  one's  own  opinions,  is  giving  way 
to  charity.  Pulpits  are  exchanged  to-day  by  representatives  of  va- 
rious denominations.  Eighty  years  ago  such  interchange  was  scarce- 
ly known.  The  Unitarians  have  accomplished  a  large  work  for  the 
spirit  of  true  tolerance.  Men  who  are  pronounced  in  their  church 
preferences  are  pleading  with  more  earnestness  for  the  co-opera- 
tion of  denominations.  Church  comity  is  coming  to  be  a  fact. 
Men  are  seeing  that  Presbyterianism,  for  example,  is  much  smaller 
than  Christianity ;  that  Congregationalism  is  not  the  Holy  Catholic 
Church.  With  Christian  large-mindedness  we  are  learning  to  love 
the  virtues  and  achievements  of  other  denominations.  The  next 
great  step  of  progress  will  resemble  the  political  change  which  came 
over  our  country  when  the  colonies  having  common  interests  became 
federated.  Federation  precedes  either  unification,  or  wide  and  gen- 
erous co-operation  in  many  things. 

Those  who  have  contributed  to  the  world's  progress  in  religious 
liberty  during  the  century  now  closing  are  a  noble  army,  working 
in  various  ways  and  in  different  lands.  He  who  writes  the  story  of 
the  century  in  this  realm  of  progress  must  tell  of  James  Madison, 
the  chief  advocate  of  the  first  amendment  to  the  constitution,  declar- 
ing that  "Congress  shall  make  no  law  respecting  any  establishment 
of  religion,  or  prohibiting  the  free  exercise  thereof."  He  must  tell  of 
the  work  of  Channing,  Theodore  Parker,  Emerson,  Lyman  Beecher, 
Phillips  Brooks,  Charles  A.  Briggs,  Francis  E.  Clark  and  John 
Henry  Vincent.  The  historian  will  not  forget  Max  Miiller,  and  his 
great  work  for  comparative  religion,  and  the  humanizing  of  the 
churches  in  their  attitude  toward  non-Christian  faiths.  He  will 
tell  of  what   Gladstone,   Macaulay,  Tennyson  and   Dean   Stanley 


GAINS    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  19 

wrought  in  England  for  the  enlargement  of  mental  freedom.  Com- 
ing to  France,  he  will  speak  of  Madame  de  Stael,  Guizot,  Athanase 
Coquerel  and  Jules  Simon.  He  will  not  forget  John  Frederick 
Oberlin,  the  model  pastor,  the  friend  of  Catholics  and  Jews,  and  the 
champion  of  love  as  greater  than  zeal. 

Probably  in  no  other  country  than  America  could  such  a  Congress 
of  Religions  have  been  held  as  that  which  was  the  crowning  feature 
of  the  Columbian  Fair.  By  that  remarkable  gathering  the  bounds 
of  brotherhood  and  of  true  toleration  were  enlarged.  Catholics  and 
Protestants  for  the  first  time,  in  a  great  assembly,  sat  together  for 
seventeen  days  in  the  spirit  of  fraternity  and  kindliness.  The  rep- 
resentatives of  the  great  non-Christian  faiths  were  treated  with  per- 
fect courtes}",  and  illustrated  the  spirit  of  courtesy  themselves. 
Many  Christians  learned  a  new  lesson,  following  the  teachings  of 
Sir  Monier  Williams,  not  to  shut  their  eyes  to  any  truth  or  virtue 
which  may  be  found  in  non-Christian  characters  and  non-Christian 
writings.  Mr.  Mozoonidar  has  recently  written  with  great  apprecia- 
tion that  the  attitude  of  Christian  missionaries  toward  Hindoo 
prophets  and  Hindoo  faiths  shows  less  and  less  of  the  old-time  po- 
lemic intolerance.  It  may  take  generations  before  the  other  peoples 
reach  the  height  which  America  reached  in  1893,  but  no  one  doubts 
that  such  a  height,  which  now  looks  lonely,  will  yet  become  a  table- 
land on  which  the  nations  of  the  earth  will  assemble. 

One  of  the  gains  which  has  come  from  a  truer  knowledge  of 
Christ,  and  hence  of  Christianity,  has  been  a  better  understanding 
of  the  true  church.  It  must  be  both  high  and  low  and  broad.  It  is 
high  enough  to  meet  what  is  loftiest  in  man ;  low  enough  to  reach 
down  with  helping  hands  to  all  the  burdened  and  suffering,  and 
broad  enough  to  include  cW  the  disciples  of  Christ.  It  loves  and 
venerates  every  manifestation  of  truth  and  righteousness.  It  in- 
cludes in  its  affection  every  devout  layman,  artist,  singer,  reformer, 
seer  and  humble  servant  of  Jesus  Christ.  It  is  a  church  in  which 
there  is  room  for  every  style  and  form  of  ordinance  which  the  in- 
dividual may  prefer.  It  has  room  for  the  various  theories  of  man's 
origin.  It  is  a  church  where  the  intellect  and  heart  are  not  set  over 
against  each  other.  It  is  a  temple  not  only  of  larger  liberty  and 
larger  truth,  but  of  closer  fellowship  and  greater  outwardly  mani- 
fested unity. 

There  has  been  a  simplification  of  theology ;  that  is,  its  reduction, 
so  far  as  co-operation  is  concerned,  to  the  common  denominator  of 


m  CHRISTENDOM. 

all  evangelical  Christians.  When  asked  their  beliefs  men  are  more 
apt  to  say  that  they  believe  in  Jesus  Christ,  in  what  He  was,  in  what 
He  said,  in  what  He  taught.  Resulting  from  this  is  the  more  earn- 
est co-operation  of  believers  in  the  greatest  work  which  Jesus  gave 
to  His  followers;  namely,  the  evangelization  of  the  world.  A  lead- 
ing denominational  paper  of  our  country  has  recently  made  the  edi- 
torial confession  that  there  was  a  time  when  the  writer  was  slow  both 
to  recognize  and  to  report  the  excellences  and  good  deeds  of  other 
denominations.  It  may  be  tinily  said  that  there  was  a  time  when 
many  Christians  shut  out  of  their  minds  thoughts  of  what  other 
churches  were  doing  for  Christ,  lest  thereby  they  should  become  less 
zealous  for  their  own  sect.  How  the  field  of  loving  thought  and 
fraternal  fellowship  has  been  widened  during  this  century,  and  how 
many  are  happy  in  feeling  that  Baptist  piety,  Methodist  piety,  An- 
glican, Presbyterian,  Lutheran,  Armenian,  Greek  and  Roman  Cath- 
olic piety  are  not  only  praiseworthy,  but  are  a  part  of  our  spiritual 
riches !  Perhaps  this  is,  after  all,  the  greatest  gain  of  the  century 
— the  drawing  together  of  Christian  hearts  about  the  person  and 
work  of  the  historical  Christ,  about  His  cross  and  broken  tomb. 

The  century  of  Christian  history  in  America  has  brought  the  va- 
rious Protestant  churches  somewhat  close  to  the  position  which  the 
American  colonies  occupied  at  the  close  of  the  Revolution.  In  those 
colonies  there  was  much  of  individual  liberty;  they  could  choose 
their  own  magistrates  and  governors,  and  frame  their  own  laws. 
There  was  also  much  local  pride,  and  there  was  also  a  degree  of  jeal- 
ousy. Furthermore,  there  was  a  consciousness  of  national  weakness. 
This  became  a  burden  to  the  great  heart  of  Washington.  Finally, 
under  his  guidance  and  the  pressure  of  necessity,  the  Constitution 
was  adopted.  The  thirteen  colonies  became  a  nation.  The  adop- 
tion of  the  Constitution  did  not  destroy  differences,  it  did  not 
abridge  liberties,  but  it  did  make  America.  Under  the  guidance 
of  Washington  and  Hamilton,  what  was  disintegration  and  weakness 
was  transformed  into  unity  and  power.  We  have  in  this  historical 
example  the  key  to  the  changes  which  have  taken  place  in  the  church. 
Broken  into  fragments,  while  it  has  been  able  to  work  wonders,  it 
has  not  accomplished  its  full  mission.  Through  co-operation  and 
through  such  a  measure  of  organization  as  may  be  needed,  the  church 
will  begin  its  grander  life.  The  changes  already  wrought  in  the 
temper  and  convictions  of  Christians  are  such  as  to  presage  a  mar- 
velous degree  of  unity.     There  are  few  events  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 


GAINS    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  n 

tury  more  significant  than  tliis  drawing  together  of  the  disciples  of 
Jesus  Christ.  Christians  of  various  names  and  peoples  are  coming, 
with  increasing  joy  in  the  unity  of  the  faith,  into  nobler  convictions 
and  to  ampler  service.  The  gains  of  Christianity  in  the  nineteenth 
century  have  been  so  large  and  vital  as  to  prophesy  for  the  twentieth 
century  the  unification  of  Christendom  and  the  evangelization  of  the 
world. 

Whether  there  have  been  losses  as  well  as  gains  in  the  Christian 
history  of  the  last  hundred  years  is  a  question  which  deserves  a 
passing  notice.  Religion  as  a  preparation  for  the  eternal  life  is 
not  to-day  so  pressing  and  solemn  a  question  as  it  was  a  hundred 
years  ago ;  that  is,  with  those  who  believe  in  religion.  But  faith  in 
the  supernatural  has  a  wider  domain  at  the  present  hour  than  it 
had  at  the  beginning  of  the  last  century.  Skepticism  is  not  so  prev- 
alent in  the  colleges  and  among  educated  people.  It  may  be  said 
that  religious  men  arc  not  so  intensely  religious  as  they  were  a  hun- 
dred years  ago,  but  this  seems  to  be  true  largely  because  religion  is 
more  diffused,  covering  a  larger  area  of  human  life  at  the  present 
time.  Christian  men  are  sincerely  anxious  to-day  that  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  Gospel  shall  be  applied  to  modern  social  conditions, 
and,  as  Bishop  Potter  has  said,  there  has  been  a  "growth  of  candor 
as  to  the  defects  of  present  systems  of  ecclesiastical  life  and  work." 
The  last  century  has  been  one  during  which  a  great  variety  of  noble 
and  mighty  efforts  have  been  tried.  Some  of  the  evangelistic  meth- 
ods of  Finney  and  Moody  may  not  be  repeated  in  the  coming  century 
with  similar  results  to  those  of  the  past ;  but  the  church  is  getting 
ready  for  a  new  and  wiser,  a  wider  evangelism ;  the  social  conscience 
has  been  touched  and  quickened  by  the  words  of  Ruskin  and  Wendell 
Phillips,  and  by  the  lives  and  teachings  of  those  who  are  giving  their 
strength  to  Christian  social  settlements.  Christianity  has  identified 
itself  with  the  temperance  reform,  and  with  the  work  of  municipal 
reform. 

The  century  has  been  largely  one  of  experimentation.  All  sorts 
of  panaceas  have  been  proposed  and  tried.  Many  promising  efforts 
outside  of  the  church  have  proved  themselves  futile,  and,  therefore, 
a  chief  gain  of  Christianity  has  been  the  acknowledgment  by  many 
social  reformers  and  scientists,  and  even  by  non-Christian  thinkers, 
of  the  necessity  of  such  a  scheme  of  spiritual  teaching  and  power  as 
that  represented  by  the  Christian  Gospel.  The  adequacy  of  a  true 
Christianity,  rightly  applied,  to  meet  all  the  individual  and  social 


22  CHRISTENDOM. 

needs  of  humanity,  has  been  proved  in  the  nineteenth  century  as 
in  no  other.  Two  of  the  hopeful  tendencies  of  recent  times  may  be 
mentioned  as  among  the  Christian  gains  of  the  century.  One  is  the 
acknowledgment  of  leading  educators  in  our  colleges  and  universities 
that  Christianity  is  a  vital  force  needed  in  the  shaping  and  perfect- 
ing of  human  character.  The  insufficiency  of  an  intellectual 
training  for  the  fashioning  of  manhood  and  womanhood  is  very  gen- 
erally conceded.  The  other  hopeful  tendency,  which  I  deem  perhaps 
the  chief  gain  of  the  century,  is  the  disposition  of  the  Christian 
Church  to  take  a  world-view  of  all  problems.  We  are  getting  to 
the  view-point  of  Jesus  Christ  Himself,  in  whom  there  was  nothing 
local  or  limited.  Christianity  is  a  world-religion,  and  Christ  is  not 
lifted  up  anywhere  in  the  fullness  of  His  purpose  and  power  until,  as 
one  has  said,  he  has  been  lifted  up  everywhere.  The  missionary 
enthusiasm  which  burns  in  the  hearts  of  so  many  men  and  women 
in  Christian  lands  may  not  always  fully  understand  itself,  but  it  is  a 
prophecy  of  a  world-conquest,  the  beginnings  of  which  lie  very  large- 
ly in  the  century  now  closed.  The  insufficiency  of  all  other  religious 
has  become  apparent  by  the  discussions  and  contacts  of  the  last  hun- 
dred years.  The  non-Christian  faiths  have  been  stirred  by  the  col- 
lision of  Christianity  with  them.  Some  of  them  are  absorbing 
Christian  truths  and  claiming  them  as  a  part  of  their  own  religions. 
It  may  be  truly  said,  in  spite  of  the  divisions  and  imperfections  of 
Christendom,  that  the  nineteenth  century  has  brought  Christianity 
to  the  front  and  placed  it  on  the  mountain-top,  where  it  shines  to- 
day with  wider  and  purer  light  than  in  any  previous  century. 


CONTRIBUTIONS  TO  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 
DURING  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY* 


George  T.  Purves,  D.D.,  LL.D., 

NEW  YORK. 

The  twentieth  century  has  opened  with  Christianity  in  a  far  more 
prosperous  condition  than  it  was  at  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth. 
This  is  true  not  only  in  regard  to  its  outward  expansion,  and  the 
many  practical  applications  which  have  been  made  of  it  in  the  social 
life  of  Christendom,  but  also  in  regard  to  its  power  in  the  realm  of 
thought.  Its  right  to  the  control  of  man's  whole  moral  life  is  very 
generally  admitted  by  philosophy  and  science;  and  this  could  not 
be  if  it  were  not  recognized  that  religion  represents  a  reality  with 
which  philosophy  and  science  in  some  sense  must  deal.  In  fact, 
there  is  no  more  potent  intellectual  force  to-day  than  Christianity. 
It  cannot  be  and  it  is  not  neglected  in  any  serious  discussion  of  ques- 
tions pertaining  to  man's  deepest  interests.  Sociology,  psychology, 
metaphysics  alike  give  heed  to  it.  Books  which  deal  with  it,  or  into 
which  its  problems  enter,  are  the  ones  most  widely  read.  The  spirit 
of  reverence  toward  it  characterizes  the  attitude  of  all  serious  minds. 
Even  scepticism,  except  in  a  few  coarse  examples,  commonly  strives 
to  preserve  the  essence  of  religion  while  rejecting  its  dogmas.  It 
is  no  longer  possible  for  culture  to  speak  of  it  in  terms  of  derision 
or  contempt.  Christianity  has  made  a  long  advance  toward  the  day 
when  "Every  thought"  shall  be  brought  "into  captivity  to  the  obed- 
ience of  Christ." 

This  result  could  not  have  been  reached  if  the  nineteenth  century 
had  not  witnessed  important  contributions  to  religious  thought.  It 
has  unquestionably  been  a  century  of  religious  revival ;  and  revivals, 
to  be  permanent,  must  affect  the  intelligence  as  well  as  the  emotions. 
The  past  century  has  been  a  stirring  one.  The  activity  of  the  hu- 
man intellect  has  been  very  great  in  all  departments  of  thought  and 
action.  Ambitious  philosophies  have  assumed  to  give  the  final  in- 
terpretation of  the  universe.  Science  has  revolutionized  our  modes 
of  thinking  about  Nature  and  life.     Discoveries  have  illuminated 

23 


24  CHRISTENDOM. 

our  views  of  ancient  history.  Society  has  realized  with  far-reaching 
effects  the  rights  and  limitations  of  the  individual,  the  nature  of  the 
social  unit,  the  defects  of  the  social  organism  which  should  be  recti- 
fied. Inventions  have  transformed  our  modes  of  living,  brought  the 
whole  world  together,  modified  our  thoughts  concerning  foreign  peo- 
ples by  familiarizing  us  with  their  ideas.  Amid  this  stir  of  thought 
religion  could  not  but  be  affected.  It  certainly  has  been,  and  since 
the  result  has  been  the  increased  power  of  religion,  we  must  believe 
that  some  contributions  of  real  advantage  have  been  made  to  relig- 
ious thought. 

It  is  the  purpose  of  this  paper  to  mention  briefly  some  of  the  con- 
tributions which  appear  to  the  writer  to  have  been  the  most  im- 
portant. They  have  indeed  often  been  abused,  carried  to  extreme 
positions,  allied  with  movements  prejudicial  rather  than  beneficial. 
Yet  a  just  discrimination  will  recognize  that  they  have  entered  wide- 
ly into  the  Christianity  of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  have  added 
largely  to  its  power. 

1.  In  the  sphere  of  purely  religious  thougbt,  or  of  theology  proper, 
mention  should  be  made  first  of  the  new  emphasis  which  has  been 
laid  on  the  immediateness  of  the  Soul's  relation  to  God  in  the  ex- 
perience of  Christian  life.  This  of  course  has  not  been  a  new  truth. 
It  is  biblical  teaching.  It  was  one  of  the  keynotes  of  the  Protestant 
Eeformation.  It  has  been  realized  by  devout  souls  in  all  the  cen- 
turies. Nevertheless,  it  marks  a  notable  contrast  between  the  nine- 
teenth century  and  the  preceding,  so  far  as  its  recognition  by  phil- 
osophy, and  its  wide  dissemination  in  popular  teaching,  are  con- 
cerned. 

This  contribution  to  religious  thought  has  had,  also,  a  complex 
history,  has  sprung  from  a  variety  of  influences,  and  has  been  fol- 
lowed by  varied  consequences. 

It  appeared  in  the  first  place  as  a  strong  reaction  against  the  cold 
deism  and  vulgar  rationalism  with  which  the  eighteenth  century 
closed.  It  has  been  like  the  substitution  of  fire  for  frost  in  the  reli- 
gious life;  of  the  sense  of  life  for  the  conception  of  a  mechanical 
relation  of  God  to  His  world.  On  its  intellectual  side  its  origin 
must  doubtless  be  referred  to  the  philosophical  movement  led  by 
Kant,  which  led  thought  to  the  inspection  and  criticism  of  its  own 
processes.  The  rise  of  the  critical  philosophy  turned  the  mind  in 
upon  itself.  The  conditions  and  the  possibility  of  all  knowledge  be- 
came the  subject  of  investigation,  with  the  result  of  creating  an  in- 


CONTEIBUTIONS  TO  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT.        25 

tellectual  scepticism  which  gave  to  the  superficial  rationalism  of  an 
earlier  period  its  death-blow.  But  with  this  scepticism  concerning 
the  mind's  ability  to  know  aught  beyond  itself,  there  came,  it  would 
seem  of  necessity,  the  assertion  of  the  worth  of  the  affirmations  of 
man's  moral  consciousness.  This  appears  in  ethics  in  Kant's  own 
"Critique  of  the  Practical  Reason."  In  religion  it  appeared  in 
Sehleiennacher's  Discourses.  Schleiermacher  has  undoubtedly  been 
the  most  influential  personality  in  the  sphere  of  past  religious 
thought  which  the  century  has  produced.  He  voiced  the  Soul's  long- 
ing for  a  direct  justification  of  its  religious  consciousness  amid  the 
scepticism  to  which  the  intellect  seemed  doomed,  and  the  current 
dissatisfaction  with  the  church.  As  is  well  known,  he  found  the 
origin  and  indestructible  cause  of  religion  in  the  universal  sense  of 
dependence.  But  his  influence  was  not  limited  by  his  particular 
theory.  He  initiated  a  movement  of  the  religious  spirit,  which  took 
various  forms  and  became  associated  with  the  most  diverse  theologi- 
cal views ;  but  which  has  been  characterized  by  the  assertion  that  re- 
ligion is  the  life  of  the  spirit  in  immediate  relation  with  God.  By 
this  affirmation  of  the  validity  of  the  religious  consciousness,  a  valu- 
able contribution  has  been  made  to  modern  thought.  In  it  many 
have  found  rest  to  whom  sceptical  objections  created  serious  diffi- 
culties. The  essential  contribution,  however,  ought  to  be  distin- 
guished from  many  of  its  accompaniments  and  developments.  It 
ought  to  be  maintained  earnestly  that  the  scepticism  which  denies 
the  ability  of  the  intellect  to  attain  to  that  which  is  beyond  itself, 
and  in  particular  in  religion  to  lay  a  rational  basis  for  a  knowledge 
of  Divine  things,  is  unjustifiable.  The  intellect  can  and  does  know 
transcendental  truth.  It  cannot  indeed  comprehend  the  Divine;  but 
it  can  know  it.  In  like  manner  scepticism  concerning  the  historical 
basis  of  Christianity  is  unjustifiable.  The  evidences  for  the  his- 
torical reality  of  the  Christian  revelation  amount  to  a  moral  demon- 
stration. Nevertheless,  the  strong  affirmation  which  the  nineteenth 
century  has  witnessed  of  the  intrinsic  validity  of  the  religious  con- 
sciousness, and  the  recognition  of  the  Soul's  own  testimony  to  its 
relation  to  God,  as  given  in  the  experience  of  Christian  life,  have 
formed  a  distinct  contribution  to  religious  thought,  and  have  been 
one  of  the  chief  reasons  for  the  admitted  power  of  religion  which, 
as  has  been  said,  marks  the  beginning  of  the  new  century. 

In  connection  with  this,  it  is  also  to  be  noted  that  a  new  emphasis 
has  been  placed  on  one  phase  of  the  relation  of  God  to  the  world. 


26  CHRISTENDOM. 

This  has  been  the  Divine  immanence.  The  very  phrase  itself  has 
become  almost  a  characteristic  of  modem  religious  thought.  It  sel- 
dom appears  in  the  writings  of  the  older  theologians.  It  has  in  a 
great  measure  replaced  the  term  Providence.  It  is  not,  however, 
synonymous  with  the  latter.  The  providence  of  God  implies  His 
control  over  the  finite  universe,  both  as  being  superior  and  external 
to  it,  and  as  working  through  or  with  its  second  causes.  The  doc- 
trine of  the  Divine  immanence  conceives  of  God  as  in  the  creation, 
manifesting  Himself  through  it,  and  unfolding  His  will  and  power 
by  means  of  its  operations.  To  complete  the  doctrine  of  Providence, 
therefore,  the  Divine  immanence  must  be  supplemented  by  that  of 
the  Divine  transcendence.  The  emphasis,  however,  during  the  past 
century  has  been  upon  the  former  aspect.  God  is  in  the  world. 
Its  laws  are  the  manifestation  of  His  activity.  Nature  is  "the  life- 
garment  of  Deity."  This,  again,  is  the  very  opposite  of  the  deistic 
idea  which  prevailed  widely  a  hundred  years  ago. 

Much  might  be  said  in  criticism  of  some  of  the  forms  in  which  the 
idea  of  God's  immanence  has  been  presented.  It  is  perhaps  true 
that  it  has  been  allied  with,  and  in  some  instances  has  grown  out  of, 
a  monotheistic  and  even  pantheistic  philosophy.  Often,  also,  has  it 
been  emphasized  so  exclusively  as  to  result  in  a  denial  of  the  Divine 
transcendence.  Yet,  in  spite  of  these  errors,  the  truth  itself  has  been 
a  positive  gain  to  religious  thought.  It  is  certainly  a  Biblical  idea. 
In  God  "we  live,  and  move,  and  have  our  being."  As  Jehovah 
dwelt  in  the  temple,  so  does  He  in  the  universe  of  which  the  temple 
was  in  one  view  a  type.  It  is  also  a  conception  which  accentuates, 
as  we  have  seen,  one  side  of  the  doctrine  of  Providence,  and  by  doing 
so  prevents  the  latter  from  being  conceived  in  a  mechanical  and 
purely  external  way.  While  it  must  be  admitted  that  the  idea, 
when  pressed  to  an  extreme,  has  tended  sometimes  to  obliterate  the 
distinction  between  the  natural  and  the  supernatural;  yet,  when 
combined  with  a  proper  view  of  the  Divine  transcendence,  it  has 
given  a  religious  value  to  the  natural  which  we  would  not  willingly 
lose.  The  world  now  seems  to  us  vitalized  by  deity.  Its  laws  ap- 
pear more  than  ever  the  expression  of  His  will.  Men  feel  him  to 
be  nearer  than  they  used  to  do.  He  will  never  again  be  conceived 
of  as  a  deus  ex  machina.  He  is  the  "universal  soul"  of  Nature,  as 
well  as  its  Creator  and  Ruler.  The  life  and  growth  of  the  universe, 
of  which  we  are  a  part,  is  the  unfolding  of  the  purpose  and  power 
of  Him  who  ever  dwells  within  it. 


CONTRIBUTIONS  TO  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT.        37 

Now,  there  is  evidently  a  close  affinity  between  the  idea  of  God's 
immanence  and  that  sense  of  the  Soul's  immediate  relation  to  God 
of  which  we  have  spoken.  It  is  not  surprising  that  the  two  concep- 
tions should  have  appeared  and  moved  together.  They  may  both,  as 
already  remarked,  at  times  have  been  pushed  into  extreme  and  one- 
sided forms,  and  so  have  served  error  rather  than  truth.  But  that 
they  have  affected  profoundly  our  religious  thought  cannot  be  ques- 
tioned; and,  when  they  are  supplemented  properly  by  other  truth, 
they  constitute  a  contribution  which  has  supplied  the  corrective  of 
other  grave  errors,  and  has  made  religion  more  vital  and  real  to  the 
mind  of  man. 

2.  The  next  contribution  to  be  mentioned  is  the  strong  emphasis 
which  has  been  placed  upon  the  love  of  God.  We  should  do  gross 
injustice  to  the  theologians  and  Biblical  students  of  former  ages  if 
we  supposed  them  not  to  have  taught  the  love  of  God.  But  it  must 
be  confessed  that  often  they  were  more  concerned  with  His  other 
attributes;  and  the  strong  emphasis  laid  to-day  on  God's  love  for 
the  world  as  a  whole  must  be  reckoned  a  real  addition  to  religious 
thought.  It  is  also  a  complete  statement  of  the  teaching  of  revela- 
tion on  the  subject. 

It  is  difficult  to  say  how  this  contribution  has  come  about.  It 
appears  to  have  sprung  from  practical  rather  than  from  philosophical 
causes,  and  to  have  been  a  reflex  product  of  tendencies  which  were 
themselves  born  of  Christianity.  Thus  the  conviction  that  the  Gos- 
pel was  to  be  given  to  the  whole  world,  naturally  brought  the  love  of 
God  to  all  mankind  into  prominence.  Again,  the  progress  made 
within  Christendom  in  the  realization  of  the  humane  duties  of  man 
to  man,  the  spirit  of  social  helpfulness  thus  engendered,  the  grow- 
ing conviction  that  Christianity  is  a  religion  of  service  and  benevol- 
ence, has  opened  the  mind  to  the  unutterable  goodness  of  God  as  He 
has  revealed  Himself.  It  has  often  happened  that  revelation  has 
been  reinterpreted  through  the  effects  which  have  been  produced 
by  it;  and  such  seems  to  have  been  the  case  in  this  instance.  We 
may  add,  also,  that  the  attention  directed  to  the  Incarnation,  with 
the  emphasis  laid  on  the  humanity  of  Christ,  and  the  perception  that 
in  His  life  of  love  the  revelation  of  God  was  brought  to  its  highest 
point,  has  added  to  the  emphasis.  But  be  the  causes  what  they  may, 
their  feature  has  been  a  marked  contribution  to  religious  thought. 
It  has  become  the  central  principle  of  some  of  the  most  influential 
theological  teaching.     It  has  transformed  the  preaching  of  the  age. 


28  CHRISTENDOM. 

It  has  brought  forward  the  Fatherhood  of  God.  It  has  beautified 
our  conception  of  the  Almighty.  It  has  restored  the  integrity  and 
proportion  of  the  Biblical  teacliing  on  the  subject.  Of  course,  like 
all  great  truths,  it  has  been  pushed  too  far,  and  illegitimate  infer- 
ences have  been  drawn  from  it.  It  has  been  used  to  destroy  the  co- 
ordinate truth  of  God's  justice  and  righteousness.  It  has  been  per- 
verted to  the  extent  of  denying  that  He  will  punish.  It  has  led  men 
to  say  that  St.  Jolin's  language,  "God  is  love,"  is  a  complete  defini- 
tion of  God,  instead  of  a  description  of  Him.  But  in  spite  of  these 
errors,  the  emphasis  placed  on  the  intensity  and  breadth  of  the  love 
of  God  has  been  a  proclamation  of  tinith  which  Christendom  needed 
to  realize  and  the  world  to  hear.  The  other  truths  of  His  righteous- 
ness and  sovereignty  are  equally  precious,  and  must  not  be  let  go. 
But  His  love  must  shine  out  with  the  lustre  which  Christ  gave  to  it, 
and  that  it  has  been  made  to  do  so  during  the  past  century  is  an  im- 
mense gain. 

It  should  be  remembered  also  that  the  emphasis  on  the  love  of 
God  has  led  to  a  more  ethical  conception  of  the  revelation  which 
He  has  made.  This  is  another  of  the  marked  features  of  modern 
religious  thought.  Men  have  come  to  feel  that  metaphysical  con- 
ceptions in  the  sphere  of  religion  need  at  least  to  be  clothed  in  the 
living  flesh  and  blood  of  ethical  reality,  in  order  to  be  apprehended 
aright.  Thus  the  unity  of  the  Father,  Son  and  Spirit  is  a  moral 
unity  of  afl'ection  and  purpose,  as  well  as  a  unity  of  substance  and 
of  attributes.  So  the  Fatherhood  of  God,  because  He  is  love,  has 
become  an  intense,  realistic  idea,  endowed  with  all  the  highest  beau- 
lies  of  fatherhood  with  none  of  the  defects  which  appear  among  our- 
selves. In  short,  theology  has  been,  as  one  has  said,  "ethicized." 
The  tendency  has,  like  the  others,  been  pushed  to  injurious  ex- 
tremes. The  ethical  has  been  in  some  cases  substituted  for  the  met- 
aphysical, thus  resulting  in  a  body  without  a  frame.  The  foolish 
attempt  has  been  made  to  deny  the  value  of  doctrinal  concepts,  when 
stated  in  an  intellectual  or  logical  form.  Nevertheless,  the  stress 
on  the  ethical  aspect  of  doctrine  has  been  a  real  advance  beyond  the 
dry  statements  of  scholasticism.  It  has  given  impressiveness  and 
practicality  to  doctrine.  It  has  made  dogma  seem  a  living  reality. 
In  particular  has  the  love  of  God,  the  realization  of  which  has  been 
the  chief  root  of  the  ethical  reelothing  of  theology,  brought  into  re- 
ligious thought  an  element  which  has  seemed  to  many  like  a  new 
revelation  of  the  Gospel. 


CONTRIBUTIONS  TO  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT.        29 

3.  Turning  next  to  quite  a  different  direction,  we  mention  the 
contribution  to  the  religious  thought  of  the  century  which  has  been 
made  by  historical  criticism. 

This  science  has  made  for  itself  a  special  place.  It  has  sought 
to  ascertain,  without  prejudice,  the  actual  facts  of  the  past.  It  has 
applied  its  instruments  of  investigation  to  both  secular  and  sacred 
history.  Casting  aside  all  prepossessions,  it  has  endeavored  to  read 
afresh  the  origin  of  nations,  societies  and  institutions,  and  to  trace 
their  developments.  It  has  brought  to  the  task  an  untiring  spirit 
of  research,  and  has  accumulated  an  immense  mass  of  information. 
It  aims  to  see  things  in  their  historical  connections,  to  trace  their 
mutual  relations,  to  discover  the  forces  which  generated  them,  and 
the  influences  under  which  they  advanced.  The  result  has  been,  in 
many  instances,  that  history  has  been  rewritten,  and,  of  course,  the 
new  conceptions  have  affected  the  thought  of  the  present. 

In  the  sphere  of  sacred  history  this  criticism  has  been  busily  at 
work.  It  has  studied  afresh  the  origin  of  Christianity.  The  first 
three  centuries  of  our  era  have  been  re-examined  with  the  closest 
scrutiny.  The  origin  of  the  books  of  the  New  Testament,  and  the 
rise  of  Christian  institutions  and  dogmas,  have  been  the  particular 
objects  of  investigation.  Apart  from  special  results,  the  effect  has 
been  to  create  a  lively  sense  of  the  historical  character  of  Christian- 
ity, to  show  the  actual  circumstances  of  its  origin,  the  phases  of  its 
early  development,  and  the  extraneous  influences  to  which  it  was 
subjected.  In  regard  to  the  Old  Testament,  likewise,  a  similar  criti- 
cism has  arisen.  With  a  boldness  hitherto  unimagined,  the  whole 
course  of  Hebrew  history  has  been  revised,  and  the  contest  is  still 
being  waged  between  the  old  views  and  the  new. 

It  must  be  confessed,  however,  that  criticism  in  the  sphere  of 
sacred  history  has  not  been  able  to  escape  from  the  control  of  philo- 
sophical prepossessions,  however  much  it  may  have  thrown  aside 
dogmatic  ones.  It  has  too  often  been  pursued  under  the  influence 
of  rationalism.  The  supernatural  has  been  discredited  and  the  ef- 
fort made  to  represent  the  history  of  religion  as  a  purely  natural 
evolution.  Hence  there  have  appeared  the  most  diverse  schools  of 
historical  criticism.  In  regard  to  the  origin  of  Christianity,  there 
has  been  the  mythical  school  of  Strauss,  the  "tendency"  school  of 
Baur,  the  "Hellenic"  school  of  Ritschl ;  while,  in  the  sphere  of  Heb- 
rew history,  Prof.  Kuenen  and  Wellhausen  have  entirely  overturned 
the  Biblical  narrative,  and  placed  the  ritual  attributed  to  Moses  at 


30  CHRISTENDOM. 

the  close,  instead  of  at  the  beginning,  of  the  national  development  of 
Israel.  This  has  often  been  done  with  the  open  declaration  that 
the  supernatural  cannot  be  recognized  by  the  historian;  and  where 
the  avowal  has  not  been  made,  it  has  more  frequently  been  assumed. 
Such  a  method  is,  of  course,  as  prejudiced  as  that  of  the  older  dog- 
maticians.  It  really  violates  the  canons  of  historical  criticism.  But 
it  may  be  expected  to  cure  itself.  Already  in  the  study  of  the  Chris- 
tian origins  the  cure  has  begun  to  work.  The  authenticity  of  nearly 
all  the  books  of  the  New  Testament  is  now  acknowledged.  The  the- 
ories of  Strauss  and  Baur  are  dead.  A  like  result  may  be  expected 
in  regard  to  much  of  the  current  criticism  of  the  Old  Testament. 
Out  of  the  long  debate  evidence  is  accumulating  which  is  sure  to 
buttress  the  essential  facts  of  the  history  as  given  in  the  Bible,  and 
to  sift  the  final  result  down  to  the  underlying  question  of  the  su- 
pernatural itself — a  question  which  philosophy  and  experience  must 
solve. 

While,  however,  historical  criticism  has  succumbed  frequently  to 
alien  influences,  its  contribution  to  the  religious  thought  of  the  cen- 
tury has  been  very  valuable.  Through  it,  for  example,  the  Bible 
has  become  almost  a  new  book,  so  fresh  has  been  the  light  thrown 
on  its  original  meaning  and  the  relation  of  its  parts.  Systems  of 
theology  are  no  longer  formed  by  the  arbitrary  selection  of  proof 
texts  from  any  part  of  the  inspired  Word.  The  progressive  charac- 
ter of  revelation,  as  presented  in  the  Bible,  is  fully  recognized.  The 
beginnings  and  the  unfoldings  of  the  religious  and  moral  teachings 
of  revelation  have  been  carefully  studied.  What  is  known  as  Bibli- 
cal Theology  has  gained  a  place  as  a  definite  branch  of  theological 
science,  and  its  purpose  is  to  set  forth  the  historical  process  of  rev- 
elation. On  its  results  theology  has  come  to  rest.  The  result  has 
done  much  to  preclude  mere  speculation  and  to  obtain  a  fairer  con- 
spectus of  Biblical  truth,  even  when  put  in  the  categories  of  a  the- 
ological system.  Meanwhile,  the  original  signification  of  Biblical 
terms,  and  the  relation  of  the  parts  of  the  Bible  to  one  another,  have 
been  studied  anew.  Then,  too,  the  historical  development  of  Chris- 
tian institutions  has  been  made  more  clear.  The  rise  of  forms  of 
church  government,  the  observance  of  the  sacraments,  the  more  or 
less  alien  ideas  which  attached  themselves  to  the  original  usages  of 
the  first  disciples,  the  influence  of  pagan  philosophy  and  customs  on 
the  thought  and  life  of  the  early  church,  have  been  reinvestigated. 

The  effect  has  been,  even  when  the  supernaturalness  of  Chris- 


CONTRIBUTIONS  TO  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT.        31 

tianity  has  been  frankly  accepted,  to  give  a  new  sense  of  the  his- 
torical movement  in  which  the  supernatural  power  operated.  Ultra- 
dogmatism  has  thus  received  a  severe  blow.  Revealed  religion  has 
been  shown  to  be  not  unnatural,  even  though  it  be  not  a  merely 
natural  process.  It  came  in  accordance  with  historical  needs,  and 
under  intelligible  conditions.  In  the  many  books  devoted  to  the 
history  of  Hebraic  or  Christian  religion  which  have  appeared  during 
the  century,  we  may  see  the  profound  influence  of  historical  criti- 
cism on  religious  thought ;  and  it  may  be  maintained  with  confidence 
that,  in  spite  of  the  speculations  which  philosophy  has  introduced 
under  the  guise  of  criticism,  the  issue  has  been  a  great  gain  in  the 
apprehension  of  revelation  and  in  the  conception  of  the  Word  of  God. 

4.  Still  another  contribution  to  the  religious  thought  of  the  cen- 
tury has  been  made  by  the  progress  and  results  of  physical  science. 
This  contribution,  also,  has  been  a  profound  one,  for  it  has  affected 
our  whole  thought  concerning  the  relation  of  God  to  the  universe.  It 
has,  moreover,  been  obtained  after  a  prolonged  conflict.  During 
the  first  three-fourths  of  the  century,  religion  and  science  were  in 
a  constant  attitude  of  hostility.  It  has  been  only  of  late  years  that 
peace  has  been  in  some  measure  secured,  and  the  real  harmony  of  the 
two  widely  perceived. 

The  contribution  given  by  science  has  not  lain  in  the  particular 
discoveries  in  the  realm  of  Nature  which  science  has  made,  but  in 
the  establishment  of  a  certain  view  of  the  world  and  of  the  processes 
which  are  taking  place  in  it.  Science  has  observed  that  Nature  is 
force  under  the  control  of  fixed  laws.  These  laws  she  has  partly 
discovered  and  classified.  She  has  found,  also,  that  the  forces  of 
Nature  are  capable  of  transmutation  one  into  another.  The  changes 
of  the  natural  world  are  known,  at  least  in  most  instances,  to  have 
proceeded  slowly,  and  by  the  adaptation  of  objects,  organic  or  inor- 
ganic, to  new  conditions.  Geology  has  ascertained  that  the  earth 
was  gradually  formed  through  vast  ages  into  its  present  state.  Biol- 
ogy has  discovered  a  like  history  in  the  forms  of  living  creatures. 
Kindred  sciences  have  found  evidences  of  similar  processes  operat- 
ing elsewhere.  In  short,  the  scientific  conception  of  the  universe 
has  become  that  of  an  unloiown  power,  called  force,  or  energy, 
evolved  in  accordance  with  ascertainable  laws  into  the  various  objects 
and  beings  which  now  present  themselves.  Whether  this  evolution 
has  been  ever  interfered  with  by  a  power  from  without  is  a  mooted 
question.     The  purely  scientific  observer  is  apt  to  feel,  indeed,  that 


32  CHRISTENDOM. 

he  has  no  call  to  raise  the  question.  It  is  his  business  simply  to 
observe  phenomena.  But  it  must  be  admitted  that  science  has  not 
proved  the  spontaneous  origin  of  lii'e,  nor  the  development  of  mind 
from  lower  forms  of  intelligence,  while  at  the  beginning  it  can  only 
posit  the  great  First  Cause.  Yet  in  general  the  scientific  concep- 
tion of  the  universe  has  obtained  control  of  men's  thoughts,  and 
the  relation  of  God  to  the  world  has  been  conceived  very  differently 
from  the  ideas  current  in  former  times. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  the  new  conception  at  first  should  have 
appeared  to  be  in  entire  conflict  with  religion.  It  seemed  to  make 
Nature  a  Godless  manifestation  of  force.  It  appeared  to  substitute 
natural  law  for  Divine  control.  It  was  in  opposition  to  the  tradi- 
tional interpretation  of  Scripture.  Science  often  treated  the  re- 
ligious view  of  the  world  with  scorn.  Many  scientists  openly  re- 
pudiated religion  or  took  an  agnostic  attitude  with  regard  to  super- 
sensual  truths.  The  conflict  became  the  more  bitter  when  science 
essayed  to  enter  the  field  of  human  history,  to  reduce  man  to  a 
higher  form  of  animal,  to  explain  the  origin  of  his  intelligence  and 
conscience  on  the  basis  of  natural  development,  and  his  subsequent 
history  as  a  more  extended  evolution  of  the  same  kind. 

In  course  of  time,  however,  mutual  concessions  have  been  made. 
On  the  one  hand  science  has  come  to  realize  that  it  is  not  and  can- 
not be  an  ultimate  interpretation  of  the  universe.  It  is  only  the 
ascertainment  of  observed  phenomena.  The  ultimate  nature  and 
reason  of  things  it  cannot  learn.  It  cannot  say  why  the  evolution 
should  have  moved  upward  and  onward  to  higher  goals.  It  con- 
fesses itself,  at  least  in  its  best  forms,  in  the  presence  of  a  Power 
which,  for  reasons  lying  beyond  the  discovery  of  science,  has  led  the 
course  of  the  world  in  a  given  direction.  Many  of  the  ablest  stu- 
dents of  Nature  acknowledge  that  life  and  mind  arc  beyond  scientific 
explanation.  Others  find  the  supernatural  in  the  natural  processes 
themselves.  But  the  spirit  of  hostility  has  largely  changed  for  one 
of  reverence,  and  in  the  study  of  Nature  the  scientist  finds  it  possi- 
ble to  worship  God. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  scientific  view  of  Nature  has  still  more 
powerfully  modified  religious  thought.  It  has  been  found  that  the 
old  interpretation  of  Scripture  was  too  crass  and  literal,  a  real  mis- 
understanding of  what  Scripture  meant  to  teach.  It  has  been  felt, 
also,  that  it  is  no  less  religious  to  admit  that  God  has  operated 
through  natural  laws,  which  He  Himself  impressed  on  the  creation. 


CONTRIBUTIONS  TO  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT.        33 

than  to  suppose  that  He  frequently  set  them  aside.  In  fact,  the 
discoveries  of  science  have  given  a  larger  sense  of  His  immensity, 
infinitude  and  immanence.  This  need  not  mean  that  He  has  never 
set  aside  natural  laws,  and  has  never  given  fresh  starting  points 
for  the  life  of  the  world.  But  religious  thought,  under  the  influ- 
ence of  science,  has  come  to  reduce  these  exceptional  acts  of  God  to 
a  small  number.  Between  them  it  recognized  God  in  the  processes 
of  His  laws.  The  latter  now  appear  more  sacred  and  inviolable  than 
ever.  In  matters  of  detail,  likewise,  the  scientific  influence  has  been 
great.  Religious  thought  is  less  tainted  with  superstition  than  it 
used  to  be.  It  depends  more  on  intelligence  and  less  on  emotion. 
It  has  observed  more  carefully,  and  in  the  spirit  of  science,  its  own 
phenomena.  That  it  will  be  able  to  maintain  the  integrity  of  its 
faith  and  the  fervor  of  its  life  in  the  face  of  science,  there  is  no 
doubt.  It  is  even  certain  that  science  will  become  more  and  more 
the  handmaid  of  intelligent  religion,  and  that  the  two  will  combine 
in  the  worship  of  Nature's  God  and  of  the  Incarnate  Creator.  That 
science  has  profoundly  affected  already  the  way  in  which  God's 
relation  to  the  world  is  apprehended  by  thoughtful,  religious  men, 
and  that  this  has  already  proved  a  benefit,  can  hardly  be  questioned. 

5,  We  should  not  fail  to  mention  in  the  next  place  the  influence 
exerted  on  religious  thought  by  the  idea  that  Christianity  is  a  so- 
cial force. 

The  eighteenth  century  was  extremely  individualistic.  Its  watch- 
word was  personal  liberty.  The  individual  asserted  his  rights,  and 
revolted  against  tyranny  in  state  and  church.  The  result,  however, 
was  disorganization,  making  room  at  times  for  the  restoration  of 
tyranny.  The  nineteenth  century,  on  the  other  hand,  has  felt  the 
need  of  social  reconstruction.  The  duty  of  the  individual  to  society 
has  claimed  attention;  the  limitation  which  free  society  puts  upon 
its  members  has  been  realized;  the  nature  of  the  social  organism 
itself  has  been  studied;  the  socialistic  tendency  has  replaced  large- 
ly the  individualistic;  and  in  the  study  of  society  the  place  of  re- 
ligion has  been  widely  recognized. 

It  has  been  perceived  that  only  a  religious  sanction  can  bind  so- 
ciety permanently  into  an  orderly  community,  and  redress  social 
wrongs.  Christianity,  also,  it  has  been  seen,  contains  in  itself  the 
power  of  social  progress.  It  aims  to  determine  the  relations  of  dif- 
ferent members  of  society.  It  assigns  to  all  both  rights  and  duties. 
It  is,  in  short,  not  merely  a  Gospel  for  the  individual,  showing  him 


34  CHKISTENDOM. 

how  to  be  saved  in  the  next  world,  but  an  uplifting  and  renewing 
power  in  the  life  of  man  under  present  conditions. 

Under  the  inspiration  of  this  idea  the  Christian  activities  of  the 
century  have  been  directed  toward  social  betterment  to  a  degree 
never  before  attempted.  The  redress  of  the  grievous  evils  inflicted 
by  human  slavery,  the  amelioration  of  the  lives  of  the  wage-earning 
classes,  the  enactment  of  legislation  in  the  interest  of  the  poor  and 
oppressed,  prison  and  factory  reform,  are  but  illustrations  of  the 
movement.  Christianity  has  become  humanitarian.  It  has  given 
rise  to  innumerable  organizations  for  the  improvement  of  life;  it 
has  revolted  against  the  selfish  assumptions  of  current  political 
economy;  it  has  created  innumerable  reforms.  The  stream  of 
thought  is  moving  in  this  direction  more  vigorously  than  ever.  There 
is  even  danger  that  the  message  of  Christianity  to  the  individual 
may  be  forgotten  in  the  zeal  with  which  its  social  message  is  being 
proclaimed. 

Now  there  can  again  be  no  question  that  this  has  been  a  real  con- 
tribution to  the  religious  thought  of  the  century,  as  well  as  to  its 
activities.  It  is  quite  true,  indeed,  that  society  is  but  the  aggregate 
of  individuals^  and  that  the  way  to  mould  society  is  primarily  and 
necessarily  by  the  regeneration  of  its  members.  But  this  is  so  be- 
cause the  social  aggregate  is  not  a  mass  of  distinct  individuals  re- 
lated to  one  another  merely  by  juxtaposition,  but  is  an  organism. 
The  parts  are  vitally  bound  together.  "The  eye  cannot  say  to  the 
ear,  I  have  no  need  of  thee."  The  rich  and  poor,  the  capitalist  and 
the  laborer,  the  rulers  and  the  governed,  the  healthy  and  the  sick, 
are  mutually  dependent.  The  regeneration  of  the  individual  affects 
society  as  the  restored  health  of  any  member  of  the  physical  body 
brings  health  to  the  whole.  Conversely,  the  health  of  the  whole 
reacts  on  the  parts.  Eeligion,  therefore,  has  its  social  message  and 
is  so  represented  in  Scripture.  In  past  ages  Christianity  has  been 
used  to  uphold  the  social  fabric  by  the  maintenance  of  monarchical 
institutions.  It  would  have  been  a  fearful  loss  if,  with  their  dissolu- 
tion, it  had  been  identified  with  them.  It  was  an  unspeakable  gain 
that  its  spirit  was  found  to  be  in  reality  accordant  with  a  free 
democracy,  providing  the  sanctions  by  which  such  a  society  could  ' 
hold  together  and  the  altruistic  sentiments  by  which  it  could  exist  in 
health  and  vigor.  This  discovery  has  been  made.  The  religious 
thought  of  the  age  has  received  from  the  social  idea  the  occasion  for 
another  fresh  interpretation  of  Christ's  Gospel.     Thereby  it  has 


CONTRIBUTIONS  TO  EELIGIOUS  THOUGHT.        35 

found  the  adaptation  of  Christianity  to  the  new  conditions  of  the 
modem  world.  The  result  has  also  been  an  immense  enlargement  of 
the  conception  of  the  mission  of  the  religion  of  Jesus.  No  gain  has 
been  greater,  whether  we  view  it  as  manifested  in  thought  or  in  life ; 
for  while  the  social  message  of  religion  has  been  re-announced  and 
applied  as  never  before,  the  message  to  the  individual  has  not  been, 
and  is  not  likely  to  be,  forgotten. 

6.  Finally,  mention  should  bo  made  of  the  contribution  made  by 
the  comparative  study  of  the  various  religions  of  the  world.  This 
has  been  possible  only  during  the  nineteenth  centur}',  because  pre- 
viously the  non-Christian  religions  were  not  accurately  known.  In 
fact,  such  knowledge  first  became  possible  with  the  unification  of  the 
world  by  modern  commerce  and  the  spread  of  foreign  missions.  The 
religions  of  the  world  have  now,  however,  been  closely  studied,  their 
sacred  books  and  customs  investigated,  and  their  ruling  ideas  re- 
duced to  system.  Out  of  this  has  arisen  the  science  of  compara- 
tive religion.  Religion  is  considered  by  it  as  a  phenomenon  of 
human  life.  Its  rudimentary  forms  have  been  examined.  The 
phases  through  which  it  has  passed  have  been  described.  Christian- 
ity has  been  brought  into  the  comparison,  and  its  resemblances  with 
and  differences  from  other  religions  have  been  noted. 

The  effects  of  this  comparison  have  been,  as  was  to  be  expected, 
quite  various.  Many  have  been  impressed  chiefly  by  the  resem- 
blances between  Christianity  and  other  religions,  and  have  inferred 
that  all  are  manifestations  of  the  natural  religious  instincts  of  hu- 
manity, and  differ  only  as  better  from  worse.  A  syncretism  in  re- 
ligion has  been  created.  The  whole  phenomenon  has  been  explained 
on  the  basis  of  naturalism  and  naturalistic  evolution.  Christianity 
has  been  robbed  of  its  uniqueness,  though  not  of  its  preeminence. 
Others  have  seen  into  the  facts  more  deeply.  They  have-recognized 
in  the  resemblances  between  Christianity  and  other  religions  only 
what  was  to  be  expected,  if  Christianit}''  was  a  real  religion  at  all; 
and  they  have  been  more  impressed  by  the  differences.  Christianity 
has  appeared  by  the  comparison  to  be  the  perfect  and  absolute  re- 
ligion, achieving  what  others  failed  to  do.  Its  idea  of  God,  its  dis- 
closure of  a  universally  applicable  way  of  salvation,  its  satisfaction 
of  the  yearning  of  conscience  for  peace,  its  regenerating  power  in  the 
individual  and  in  society,  have  appeared  more  brilliant  than  ever 
when  contrasted  with  heathenism.  To  such  observers  the  compara- 
tive study  of  religions  lias  been  fruitful  in  fresh  zeal  for  the  spread 


36  christp:ndom. 

of  Christianity  throughout  the  world.  But,  whichever  of  these 
specific  impressions  have  been  made,  the  knowledge  of  the  religious 
life  of  humanity  has  deepened  the  consciousness  that  religion  is  an 
essential  factor  of  human  nature.  Whatever  theories  of  its  origin 
have  been  held,  it  is  seen  to  be  a  persistent,  indestructible,  funda- 
mental fact  in  the  life  of  man.  It  is  imbedded  in  the  very  structure 
of  his  being.  It  can  never  again  be  regarded  as  the  arbitrary  crea- 
tion of  priests,  nor  as  a  political  device.  Neither  science  nor  politi- 
cal economy  can  leave  it  out  of  consideration.  The  only  thing  that 
can  be  done  with  it  is  to  purify  it.  It  has  taken  its  place  as  a  con- 
stituent factor  in  the  world's  life,  because  arising  out  of  the  relation 
in  which  man  finds  himself  to  the  universe,  as  well  as  out  of  the  re- 
quirements of  his  conscience  and  intelligence.  Thus,  again,  the 
thoughts  of  men  have  deepened  concerning  the  very  nature  of  re- 
ligion; while  more  and  more  is  it  being  felt  that  Christianity  alone 
realizes  the  idea  of  religion  and  is  itself  the  only  absolute  one. 

Such  appear  to  be  the  most  important  contributions  which  have 
been  made  to  religious  thought  during  the  nineteenth  century. 
They  assuredly  attest  the  fact  that  great  progress  has  been  made. 
They  partly  explain  the  revival  of  the  religious  spirit  and  give 
ground  for  hope  that  it  will  prove  permanent.  Through  them  all 
must  we  not  recognize  the  working  of  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  supported 
also  by  the  providence  of  God,  who  is  steadily,  though  slowly,  taking 
of  the  things  of  Christ  and  showing  them  unto  men  ?  For  certainly 
the  result  has  been  to  glorify  Jesus  Christ.  At  the  beginning  of  the 
new  century  He,  more  than  ever,  stands  before  the  world's  thought 
as  the  supreme  object  of  veneration.  Religious  thought  sees,  as 
never  before,  that  in  Him  all  truth  centres  and  from  Him  all  real 
life  flows.  He  is  plainly  to  be  the  Omega,  as  he  was  the  Alpha,  of 
the  religious  life  of  the  centuries.  The  process,  whatever  it  may  be, 
by  which  Christ  is  becoming  Lord  of  All,  must  certainly  be  the  true 
progress  of  humanity  toward  the  final  goal. 


THE  SOCIAL  ASPECT  OF  CHRISTIANITY, 


J.  H.  W.  Stuckenberg,  D.D.,  LL.D., 

NORTH    CAilBRIDGE. 

A  NEW  spirit  has  entered  the  Christian  Church,  effecting  a  trans- 
formation of  its  character,  its  rehitions,  its  energies  and  methods, 
and  its  influence.  This  spirit  is  social,  and  in  marked  contrast  with 
the  individualism  which  has  so  often  been  dominant.  The  effect 
is  felt  in  the  relation  of  the  individual  Christian  to  society,  and  of 
the  church  to  secular  affairs  and  all  social  enterprises.  This  paper 
seeks  to  indicate  briefly  the  causes,  the  nature,  the  purpose  and  the 
methods  of  the  new  Christian  social  movement ;  to  describe  the  new- 
ly awakened  Christian  social  conscience  and  its  operations. 

Modern  life  is  so  complex,  and  its  social  forces  are  so  inextricably 
interwoven,  that  the  religious  factors  cannot  be  absolutely  separated 
and  treated  as  isolated.  They  affect,  and  are  affected  by,  economics, 
polities,  sesthetics,  the  intellectual  trend,  and  the  general  situation. 
The  social  forces  constitute  an  organism  in  which  each  is  for  all  and 
all  are  for  each.  Therefore  the  sociality  of  the  church  can  be  imder- 
stood  only  in  its  connection  with  the  general  tendencies  in  thought 
and  life.  These  very  tendencies  which  influence  the  church  may 
have  had  their  origin,  in  a  measure  at  least,  in  Christian  faith. 

The  Christian  thought  and  life  of  the  present  are  culminations 
of  long  processes;  but  their  more  immediate  causes  are  found  in  re- 
cent epochs.  The  growth  of  associations,  the  increase  of  their  pow- 
er, and  the  prominence  of  society  are  significant  features  of  modern 
times.  Once  politics  dominated  society :  now  society  seeks  to  domi- 
nate politics.  The  revolutions  of  America  and  France  in  the  eigh- 
teenth century,  and  of  other  countries  in  the  nineteenth,  have 
brought  the  people  to  the  front,  and  made  the  demand  for  liberty 
and  equality  a  striking  characteristic  of  present  tendencies.  The 
people  have  become  conscious  of  themselves  and  their  needs;  their 
condition  and  possibilities  have  been  studied;  and  their  rights  have 
been  demanded  with  persistence,  and  even  with  violence.  Personal 
and  social  duties  have  not  kept  pace  with  the  insistence  on  privilege. 
In  many  cases  the  sovereignty  passed  from  one  man,  or  a  privileged 


38  CHRISTENDOM. 

few,  to  the  people;  while  its  full  responsibility  was  not  realized. 
But  the  prominence  and  power  of  the  masses  now  made  them  objects 
of  interest  and  study ;  and  history,  formerly  concerned  chiofly  about 
monarchs,  statesmen,  generals  and  scholars,  began  to  take  account 
of  the  common  people.  The  conception  of  society  was  enlarged;  it 
included  entire  communities,  not  merely  court  circles  and  the  aris- 
tocracy of  birth,  wealth  and  intellect. 

The  French  revolution  proposed  to  right  the  wrongs  of  centuries 
of  corruption  and  oppression.  Human  affairs  were  treated  as  if 
wholly  subject  to  human  will,  and  it  was  forgotten  that  historic  pro- 
cesses involve  necessity  as  well  as  freedom,  and  that  to  remedy  evils 
may  require  as  long  time  as  it  took  to  develop  them.  Since  that 
revolution  the  exposure  of  evils,  particularly  the  ills  of  the  poorer 
members  of  society,  has  become  a  mania.  During  the  revolutionary 
agitations  communism  appeared,  and  began  the  spread  of  its  doc- 
trines throughout  the  enlightened  nations.  Socialism,  a  name  in- 
vented in  1835,  was  a  broader  term  and  covered  a  larger  variety  of 
social  tendencies.  Men  and  systems  were  called  socialistic  which 
opposed  the  prevailing  individualism,  and  were  intent  on  improving 
the  social  condition,  especially  that  of  laborers.  The  situation  of 
the  poorer  members  of  society  was  investigated,  the  sufferings  and 
inhumanity  to  which  they  were  subject  were  exposed,  and  measures 
of  relief  advocated.  The  socialistic  agitations,  at  first  most  active 
in  France,  soon  passed  to  England,  Germany  and  other  Continental 
countries,  differing  in  aim  and  labors  according  to  locality  and  na- 
tionality, but  always  aiming  to  benefit  the  toilers.  The  means  pro- 
posed were  various,  such  as  self-help,  co-operation,  for  which  in  some 
instances  state  help  was  asked,  the  organization  of  laborers  to  gain 
their  ends  from  employers,  and  to  promote  their  sreneral  welfare, 
and  to  exert  political  influence.  The  Social  Democracy,  now  the 
largest  and  most  powerful  socialistic  organizali'on,  aims  at  a  total 
economic  and  social  revolution,  in  order  to  turn  private  and  com- 
peting capital  into  non-competing  social  capital. 

The  socialists  aim  at  practical  results,  but  have  developed  econo- 
mic and  social  theories  and  systems  as  the  means  of  attaining  them. 
Sociology  differs  from  socialism  in  that  its  immediate  aim  is  not 
practical  but  scientific.  It  wants  to  construct  the  science  of  society, 
whose  application  can  be  left  to  practical  reformers.  Comte,  who 
invented  this  term,  as  well  as  altruism,  and  gave  an  impulse  and 
valuable  directions  for  the  development  of  the  social  science,  came 


SOCIAL   ASPECT    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  39 

from  the  school  of  St.  Simon.  As  is  usual,  the  new  science  received 
its  inspiration  from  practical  needs  and  tendencies.  Sociology  aims 
to  interpret  society,  to  show  how  it  is  related  to  nature  and  the  in- 
dividual, to  explain  its  various  processes,  especially  its  evolution, 
and  thus  prepare  for  inferences  respecting  what  it  ought  to  be. 
Numerous  subjects  have  been  discussed  under  tliis  name,  and  only 
tentatively  can  sociology  as  yet  be  called  a  science,  there  being  no 
consensus  regarding  its  scope,  its  method,  and  the  system  itself. 
But  on  whatever  social  phases  and  phenomena  sociologists  have  spe- 
cialized, they  always  aimed  to  penetrate  the  mysteries  of  society,  and 
have  produced  profound  and  valuable  results.  Sociological  study 
brought  society  before  thinkers  and  investigators  as  an  object  of 
supreme  importance,  made  individuals  and  associations  more  fully 
aware  of  their  relations,  powers  and  duties,  and  intensified  the  in- 
terest in  societies  and  humanity.  The  claim  by  scientists  that  the 
nineteenth  century  belongs  to  natural  science  has  been  disputed; 
history  has  made  marvelous  progress,  anthropology,  ethnology  and 
sociology  were  born,  economics  and  politics  were  transformed  and 
much  advanced,  human  interests  in  general  were  greatly  developed, 
and  now  the  concerns  of  man  and  his  associations  are  dominant.  It 
has  even  been  claimed  that  the  nineteenth  ought  to  be  called  "the 
socialistic  century."  Men  eminent  in  natural  science,  who  claim 
last  century  for  their  specialty,  admit  that  the  twentieth  belongs  to 
sociology.  It  is  natural  that  man  and  his  relations  should  be  the 
chief  concern  of  man ;  and  present  tendencies  indicate  that  sociology 
is  becoming  increasingly  the  study  of  the  age,  and  that  henceforth 
unprecedented  attention  will  be  devoted  to  social  affairs. 

The  church  breathed  this  atmosphere,  and  felt  the  effect  in  its 
life;  and  the  environment  in  which  it  lived,  as  well  as  its  internal 
development,  must  be  taken  into  account  in  order  to  understand  the 
church  of  to-day.  A  relation  of  co-operation  and  mutualism  has 
existed  between  the  practical  and  scientific  social  tendencies  and 
Christianity.  The  church  itself  is  a  social  institution,  and  as  such 
has  at  all  times  felt  the  molding  influence  of  society,  and  even  in  its 
most  individualistic  periods  has  affected  social  affairs  as  well  as 
individuals.  Christianity  has  a  part  in  all  the  extensive  movements 
of  society,  and  is  a  powerful  factor  in  the  nations  and  the  world. 
But  whether  its  sociality  is  what  it  ought  to  be  is  another  matter. 
It  is  a  Christian  axiom  that  before  God  all  men  are  equal,  that  be- 
lievers are  one,  that  to  each  other  and  to  the  worldly,  whether  friends 


40  CHRISTENDOM. 

or  foes,  they  owe  love  and  its  fruits,  and  that  they  are  called  to  trans- 
form society  by  means  of  the  Gospel.  However  derelict  it  may  have 
been,  something  of  this  fundamental  Christian  spirit  and  work  has 
alwaA's  been  found  in  the  church.  Christianity  possesses  humani- 
tarian and  social  principles  which  affect  even  such  persons  as  are  not 
attracted  by  its  spirituality.  But  in  the  realization  of  its  social  mis- 
sion and  power,  and  in  the  effort  to  infuse  the  Christian  spirit  into 
all  the  social  relations,  we  are  justified  in  claiming  that  a  new  epoch 
has  begun  for  the  church. 

Powerfully  as  the  church  has  been  affected  by  sociology  and  so- 
cialism, these  have  also  been  powerfully  affected  bv  the  church. 
Christianity  is  not  the  only  factor  in  the  soil  from  which  the  modem 
social  tendencies  have  sprung;  but  there  is  truth  in  the  claim  of 
Laveleye,  of  Belgium,  Todt,  of  Germany,  and  of  English  and  Amer- 
ican writers,  that  socialism,  in  spite  of  its  perversions,  strikes  its 
roots  in  Christianity. 

Wherever  Christ  has  been  preached  the  personality  has  been  em- 
phasized as  made  in  the  image  of  God,  and  therefore  possessing  in- 
herent dignity  and  rights.  The  demands  for  the  rights  of  man, 
urged  so  vehemently  and  even  fanatically  at  the  close  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century,  have  their  basis  in  the  Gospel.  Properly  under- 
stood, the  watchwords  of  the  French  revolution — liberty,  equality, 
fraternity — are  a  Christian  requirement.  The  pulpit,  in  teaching 
that  God  is  no  respecter  of  persons,  that  men  must  be  Judged  by 
their  hearts,  not  by  position,  wealth,  or  any  other  outward  circum- 
stances, prepared  for  the  revolt  against  the  external  and  fictitious 
distinctions  according  to  which  men,  regardless  of  personal  ability 
and  character,  were  usually  estimated. 

Much  in  the  trend  of  modern  times  also  exalts  the  significance 
of  the  present  life  and  temporal  interests.  The  older  Christian 
literature  has  more  to  say  about  the  next  world,  and  less  about  the 
value  of  earthly  things  and  relations.  The  modern  view  was  pro- 
moted by  the  study  of  natural  science,  the  great  progress  in  economic 
pursuits,  and  the  growing  interest  in  secular  affairs.  Material- 
ism, philosophical  and  historical  criticism,  and  the  effort  to  substi- 
tute science  for  religion,  reason  for  faith,  made  the  future  world 
recede,  occasioned  doubt,  and  concentrated  attention  and  hope  more 
on  present  actualities.  While  agnosticism  gained  favor  with  some 
scientists,  the  belief  spread  among  the  masses  that  religion  was 
used  to  make  hope  in  the  next  life  the  means  of  robbing  the  toilers 


SOCIAL    ASPECT    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  41 

of  the  enjoyments  of  the  present.  German  socialists  were  incensed 
when  it  was  affirmed  among  scholars  that  while  they  themselves  did 
not  need  religion,  it  was  serviceable  in  keeping  the  masses  quiet. 
Even  where  religion  held  its  own,  or  made  advances,  it  could  not 
retain  its  former  dominance,  on  account  of  the  marvelous  progress 
in  secular  learning  and  worldly  interests.  The  conservative  ten- 
dencies in  the  church  made  theology  comparatively  stationary,  while 
in  every  department  of  natural  and  human  studies  great  advances 
took  place. 

The  religious  Life  was  also  profoundly  affected  by  the  change  from 
metaphysical  speculation  and  theological  dogmatism  to  practical  af- 
fairs. Since  the  time  of  Hegel  speculative  philosophy  has  lost 
ground  and  yielded  the  supremacy  to  facts,  experiments,  and  the 
direct  investigation  of  reality.  Becoming  suspicious  of  subjective 
notions,  men  demanded  objective  realism,  by  which  they  were  apt 
to  mean  what  appeals  to  the  senses  and  can  be  handled,  weighed  and 
measured.  Even  in  the  church  the  cry  of  religion  versus  theolog}' 
was  raised,  overlooking  the  fact  that  all  deeper  thinking  demands  a 
reduction  of  religious  phenomena  to  principles,  causes  and  system. 
But  the  emphasis  on  practical  religion  promoted  the  tendency  to 
concentrate  the  attention  on  this  life  and  its  immedate  concerns. 
No  other  century  has  equaled  the  nineteenth  in  the  radicalness, 
severity  and  scholarship  of  the  attacks  on  dogmatic  theological  sys- 
tems. Those  who  could  not  investigate  the  profound  questions  in- 
volved turned  to  the  more  evident  practical  teachings  of  religion. 

The  attacks  on  theology  directed  Christians  to  its  source,  the 
Scriptures;  and  the  attacks  on  the  Scriptures  led  to  a  more  thorough 
investigation  of  their  contents.  When  Strauss  attempted  to  over- 
throw the  authenticity  of  the  history  of  the  evangelists,  the  church 
was  aroused  and  made  a  vigorous  defence.  The  very  study  of  the 
Gospel  augmented  the  conviction  of  believers  that  Christ  is  Himself 
the  substance  of  His  preaching.  The  increased  study  of  the  Bible 
by  means  of  numerous  helps  is  characteristic  of  modern  times.  Lay- 
men wanted  to  investigate  for  themselves,  and  they  were  aided  by 
Sunday-schools  and  other  associations,  and  by  evangelists.  The 
study  was  influenced  by  the  general  social  movement.  Christ's  atti- 
tude toward  social  problems  became  an  important  question;  and  it 
was  found  that  His  teaching  and  that  of  the  Apostles  are  exceedingly 
rich  in  instruction  respecting  the  social  relations  and  duties  of 
Christians. 


42  CHRISTENDOM. 

That  the  social  actuality  did  not  correspond  with  the  Christian 
ideal  was  as  evident  as  that  the  church  seemed  indifferent  to  the 
realization  of  the  ideal.  The  evils  revealed  in  Christian  lands  by 
social  students  and  socialists  were  appalling.  Carl  Marx  and  Fried- 
rich  Engels  made  astounding  revelations  respecting  the  brutality 
with  which  women  and  children  were  treated  in  the  mines  and  fac- 
tories of  England  during  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
and  how  laborers  were  exploited  and  undergoing  a  process  of  gradual 
degeneration.  Similar  or  even  worse  horrors  were  exposed  in  other 
lands.  Public  attention  was  still  more  aroused  when  communistic 
socialism  grew  in  power,  and  threatened  the  throne  and  the  altar, 
and  the  whole  social  structure,  in  order  to  establish  an  entirely  dif- 
ferent social  organization  on  a  new  basis,  and  when  anarchism  actu- 
ally began  the  work  of  destruction.  The  consternation  caused  in 
Europe  by  an  extreme  socialism  and  a  brutal  anarchism  was  not  ap- 
preciated in  America,  where  economic  conditions  were  different,  and 
greater  freedom  was  less  favorable  to  extreme  measures.  Radical 
socialistic  and  anarchistic  theories  began  to  prevail  later  in  the 
United  States  than  in  Europe,  and  flourished  chiefly  among  for- 
eigners who  had  learned  them  in  the  Old  World.  The  same  views 
have  recently,  however,  spread  also  among  Americans. 

A  survey  of  the  history  of  the  century  which  has  just  closed  thus 
shows  that  the  origin  of  the  modern  Christian  social  movement  is 
due  to  a  variety  of  causes  both  religious  and  secular.  It  is  the  cul- 
mination of  numerous  practical  and  scholarly  tendencies,  special 
influence  being  due  to  the  new  interest  in  social  studies  and  the  up- 
rising of  the  masses.  As  is  usual  in  such  movements,  the  develop- 
ment which  pushed  society  and  its  concerns  to  the  front  has  been 
gradual  and  often  imperceptible,  so  that  it  is  impossible  to  say  just 
when  it  began  and  what  agencies  promoted  it.  There  are,  however, 
well-defined  landmarks,  epochs  we  might  call  them,  when  the  Chris- 
tian social  movement  received  a  special  impulse,  or  took  a  new  start. 
It  was  about  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  that  certain  popu- 
lar tendencies  culminated  and  became  the  occasion  of  a  specific  and 
continuous  Christian  social  activity  in  Europe. 

The  indifference  and  even  apathy  of  the  clergy  and  churches  of 
England  to  the  welfare  of  the  poorer  classes  before  this  time  would 
seem  incredible  if  the  same  were  not  still  common  to  some  extent 
in  all  Christian  lands.  Appeals  for  justice  and  mercy,  on  the  plea 
of   Christianity,   were  made  by  Lord  Ashley,   afterward   Earl   of 


SOCIAL   ASPECT    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  43 

Shaftesbury,  and  his  associates,  for  the  improvement  of  the  legal 
status  of  laborers.  Their  miserable  situation  was  exposed  by  com- 
mittees, and  fully  discussed  in  Parliament;  yet  the  Earl  of  Shaftes- 
bury complained  that  the  Christians  were  indifferent  to  the  matter. 
Even  the  wretched  condition  of  the  children  did  not  move  them. 
Men  of  the  world  were  with  him,  he  said,  while  the  saints  stood  aloof 
and  were  silent.  But  the  exposures  were  not  without  effect.  Some 
Christians  were  at  least  made  aware  of  the  situation,  and  this  was 
a  preparation  for  arousing  their  consciences.  Near  the  middle  of 
the  century  Chartism  had  practically  failed.  It  had  demanded  uni- 
versal suffrage  and  Parliamentary  reform,  and  devised  plans  for  the 
relief  of  workingmen ;  but  it  also  became  involved  in  socialistic  and 
revolutionary  agitations.  In  1848  a  new  movement  was  started, 
with  some  of  the  reformatory  aims  of  Chartism,  but  based  on  Chris- 
tian principles.  The  conviction  that  something  must  be  done  for 
the  masses  was  strengthened  by  the  revolutionary  disturbances 
throughout  Europe  during  that  year.  The  term  socialist  was  at 
that  time,  as  it  has  been  since,  deemed  a  reproach  in  the  church 
and  among  the  wealthy.  But  Maurice,  Kingsley,  Ludlow  and  oth- 
ers started  what  they  called  "Christian  Socialism."  They  published 
the  "Christian  Socialist,"  and  "Tracts  on  Christian  Socialism,"  to 
aid  the  laborers  in  their  efforts  to  rise,  and  to  Christianize  socialism 
and  socialize  Christians.  Their  peaceable  aim  was  misinterpreted, 
though  they  declared  that  they  wanted  to  prevent  rather  than  to 
promote  revolution.  Maurice  said,  respecting  Christian  Socialism, 
that  it  is  "the  only  title  which  will  define  our  object  and  will  com- 
mit us  at  once  to  the  conflict  we  must  engage  in  sooner  or  later  with 
the  unsocial  Christians  and  the  unchristian  socialists.  .  .  .  We 
believe  that  Christianity  has  the  power  of  regenerating  whatever  it 
comes  in  contact  with,  of  making  that  morally  healthful  and  vigor- 
ous which,  apart  from  it,  must  be  either  mischievous  or  inefficient. 
We  found,  from  what  we  knew  of  the  workingmen  in  England,  that 
the  conviction  was  spreading  more  and  more  widely  among  them 
that  law  and  Christianity  were  merely  the  support  and  agents  of 
capital.  We  wished  to  show  them  both  by  words  and  deeds  that 
law  and  Christianity  are  the  only  protectors  of  all  classes  from  the 
selfishness  which  is  the  destruction  of  all." 

Since  that  time  a  great  awakening  of  the  Christian  social  con- 
sciousness has  taken  place  in  England.  What  is  now  known  as 
Christian  socialism  has  been  modified  by  the  views  of  Carl  Marx. 


44  CHRISTENDOM. 

Henry  George  and  Edward  Bellamy.  The  present  society  of  Chris- 
tian socialists  is  small,  liberty  is  advocated  respecting  theological 
views,  they  seek  "the  union  of  all  men  in  a  real  universal  brother- 
hood/"' and  aim  at  the  gradual  "public  control  of  land  and  capital." 
This  is  its  religious  position :  "Christian  socialism  aims  at  embody- 
ing the  principles  contained  in  the  life  and  teachings  of  Jesus 
Christ  in  the  industrial  organization  of  society." 

The  St.  Matthew's  Guild  in  the  Established  Church  unites  radical 
social  views  with  High  Church  principles,  aims  to  remove  prejudices 
against  the  church  and  her  institutions,  and  "to  promote  the  study 
of  social  and  political  questions  in  the  light  of  the  Incarnation." 

More  powerful  is  the  Christian  Social  Union,  which  urges  upon 
the  church  "the  necessity  of  careful  and  painstaking  study  of  the 
social  question,  and  to  take  the  lead  in  establishing  branches  for 
such  study."  Books  are  to  be  suggested  for  this  study,  and  lectures 
on  social  subjects  to  be  delivered.  The  "Economic  Review,"  con- 
taining valuable  economic  and  social  discussions,  is  published  by  this 
society.  Tlie  "Church  Army"  aims  at  the  same  kind  of  work  as  the 
Salvation  Arm}',  but  on  a  much  smaller  scale. 

The  Rev.  R.  A.  Woods,  in  "English  Social  Movements,"  says: 
"On  the  whole,  and  in  its  main  features,  the  Church  of  England 
exerts  a  larger  and  more  salutary  influence  on  general  social  life 
than  any  other  Christian  body  in  the  world.  .  .  .  Most  of  the 
churches  are  well  supplied  with  paid  workers.  In  addition  to  the 
rectors  and  vicars,  there  will  be  found  curates,  lay  readers,  members 
of  lay  brotherhoods  and  sisterhoods,  deaconesses,  Bible  women,  and 
trained  nurses,  besides  the  usually  well -organized  volunteers  from 
the  church  membership." 

Excellent  social  work  is  also  done  by  the  Congregationalists,  Meth- 
odists and  Baptists,  but  not  so  much  by  means  of  special  organiza- 
tions. Their  churches  are  reaching  out  after  the  masses,  and  trying 
to  aid  them  in  temporal  and  spiritual  matters.  In  this  connection 
the  London  Congregational  Union,  Dr.  Barnardo,  F.  N.  Charring- 
ton,  and  Rev.  Hugh  Price  Hughes,  deserve  special  mention. 

Rev.  Mr.  Woods  states  that  Christian  Socialism  is  spreading,  but 
that  as  yet  it  has  not  collected  much  of  its  strength  into  organiza- 
tion. "In  the  dissenting  churches,  while  many  of  the  younger  min- 
isters hold  very  radical  views,  the  number  of  avowed  socialists  is  com- 
paratively small.  But,  in  the  Church  of  England,  one  might  fairly 
say  that  there  is  a  strong  socialistic  movement.     A  group  of  forty 


SOCIAL    ASPECT    OF    CHEISTIANITY.  45 

London  clergymen,  nearly  all  socialists,  meet  during  the  winter  to 
consider  what  attitude  they  shall  take  toward  specific  labor  troubles. 
A  good  part  of  the  young  High  Churchmen,  often  the  best  repre- 
sentatives of  the  university  and  of  the  upper  social  class,  are  facing 
the  problems  of  poverty  in  London  and  other  towns.  This  experi- 
ence, together  with  the  new  enthusiasm  of  humanity,  which  is  run- 
ning so  strong  in  the  High  Church  party,  is  making  many  of  them 
socialists." 

About  the  same  time  as  in  England,  the  modern  Christian  social 
movement  began  in  Germany.  At  a  religious  congress  held  in  1848, 
in  the  Reformation  city,  Wittenberg,  John  Henry  Wichern  directed 
attention  to  the  condition  of  the  masses,  and  zealously  urged  that 
with  respect  to  the  poorer  classes  the  church  has  a  special  mission. 
It  was  generally  recognized  that  it  owes  them  duties  as  well  as  other 
men ;  but  sight  had  been  lost  of  the  fact  that  the  poor  and  suffering 
are  committed  to  the  church  as  objects  of  peculiar  care  and  help- 
fulness. This  was  involved  in  their  very  needs.  Spiritually  as  well 
as  in  economic  affairs,  they  were  the  neglected  classes.  The  church 
was  viewed  as  an  organ  of  the  state,  even  as  a  clerical  institution 
for  political  ends,  where  respectability,  wealth  and  aristocracy  ruled ; 
but  in  which  the  common  people  had  little  interest  except  to  receive 
religious  instruction.  It  was  too  exclusively  an  institution  for  wor- 
ship and  the  exercise  of  clerical  functions  to  be  in  an  exalted  sense 
sociable,  to  promote  lay  activity,  or  to  uplift  the  masses.  Wichern's 
earnest  appeals  had  the  more  effect  because  Germany  had  just  been 
appalled  by  the  revolution,  which  revealed  deep  discontent,  threat- 
ened the  existing  institutions,  and  resulted  in  much  bloodshed.  The 
revolution  was  no  more  significant  in  revealing  the  feeling  of  the 
masses  than  in  testifying  to  the  neglect  of  the  needy  by  the  church. 
Not  only  were  many  of  the  workingmen  alienated  from  the  church, 
but  infidelity,  materialism  and  agnosticism  prevailed  among  them 
to  an  alarming  extent.  To  win  back  to  the  church  and  Christianize 
the  masses  now  became  the  problem.  Great  as  the  difficulty  then 
was,  it  was  still  greater  when  an  extreme  socialism  developed  its 
power,  enlisted  millions  under  its  banner,  and  either  avowed  athe- 
ism or  at  least  opposed  the  church  because  conservative  and  an  ally 
of  the  state  in  preventing  its  revolutionary  schemes. 

The  state  church,  as  an  institution,  had  too  little  freedom,  and 
was  too  unwieldy  to  accomplish  the  work  of  social  reform ;  but  it 
XV as  deeply  affected  by  the  socialistic  agitations.     The  sermons  paid 


46  CHRISTENDOM.  j 

more  attention  to  the  social  condition;  preachers  drew  nearer  the 
laborers,  and  in  many  parishes  special  eiforts  were  made  to  help 
the  poorer  classes.  The  new  spirit,  however,  found  the  best  expres- 
sion in  what  is  called  "Inner  Mission."  We  have  no  corresponding 
English  term,  home  mission  and  evangelization  being  more  limited. 
In  distinction  from  foreign  mission  the  Inner  Llission  works  among 
people  in  Christian  lands,  and  nominally  in  the  church,  but  not  full 
participants  of  its  spirit  and  in  special  need  of  temporal  aid.  The 
term  is  not  limited  to  purely  spiritual  efforts,  but  is  intended  to  in- 
clude all  the  work  outside  of  the  regular  ministrations  of  the  church 
undertaken  in  Christ's  spirit,  whether  it  be  for  the  individual  or 
society;  for  the  soul,  the  body,  or  the  surroundings.  The  Inner 
Mission  was  the  sphere  in  wliich  Christian  individuals  and  volun- 
tary organizations  promoted  the  cause  of  Christ  among  the  neglected 
such  as  the  church  did  not  reach.  It  includes  the  works  of  mercy 
by  thousands  of  deaconesses,  Avho,  in  institutions  and  homes,  minis- 
ter to  the  sick,  the  suffering,  and  the  poor ;  the  brotherhoods  trained 
to  take  care  of  orphans  and  neglected  children,  to  provide  religious 
instruction  and  services  in  destitute  regions,  and  to  undertake  what- 
ever reformatory  work  may  be  needed ;  Christian  hotels  for  the  trav- 
eling public,  and  homes  for  young  workmen  and  for  servant  girls; 
and  efforts  in  behalf  of  particular  classes,  such  as  cabmen  and  wait- 
ers, who  are  unable  to  attend  religious  services,  the  unemployed,  re- 
leased prisoners,  fallen  and  abandoned  women.  It  therefore  em- 
braces every  department  of  Christian  effort  in  behalf  of  the  needy. 
Christ's  regenerative  mission  is  interpreted  to  apply  to  the  whole 
man,  physical,  mental  and  spiritual,  and  the  whole  world  so  far  as  it 
sustains  himian  relations.  The  cause  enlists  the  energies  of  many 
preachers,  and  it  presents  a  sphere  for  Christian  laymen  to  exercise 
the  gifts  for  whose  development  the  church  affords  too  little  oppor- 
tunity. Laymen  are  often  the  managers  and  most  efficient  workers. 
Formal  organizations  are  not  necessary;  any  Christian  can  under- 
take the  work  wherever  needed.  There  are  general  conventions  of 
workers  in  the  Inner  Mission,  but  each  department  is  independent 
and  supported  by  voluntarv'  contributions.  The  work  is  extensive, 
thoroughly  Christian,  and  fruitful  of  good,  and  one  of  the  most 
significant  evidences  of  the  social  power  of  Christianity  in  our  day. 
The  Inner  Mission  readies  all  the  Protestant  cities  of  Germany, 
extends  to  country  districts,  and  even  to  foreign  lands  where  Ger- 
mans reside,  and  contains  twenty-five  or  more  distinct  departments. 


SOCIAL    ASPECT    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  4T 

It  is  a  general  rule  that  the  church  which  is  in  the  minority  in  a 
region  is  apt  to  be  more  zealous  than  the  one  which  has  the  ascen- 
dancy. The  zeal  of  the  latter  seems  to  be  affected  by  the  fact  that 
without  special  effort  it  has  things  its  own  way.  The  Protestants 
are  most  energetic  in  Catholic  and  the  Catholics  in  Protestant  lands. 
However  the  Catholic  clergy  may  neglect  the  masses  in  countries 
where  their  church  has  undisputed  sway,  they  reveal  much  energy  in 
their  behalf  when  they  have  Protestant  rivals.  In  Germany,  parts 
of  Austria,  in  Holland,  Scandinavia,  England,  Scotland,  and  the 
United  States,  the  Catholic  priests  display  much  concern  for  the 
workingmen.  German  Socialists  declare  that  in  Germany  the  Cath- 
olic Church  has  shown  more  interest  in  behalf  of  laborers  than  the 
Evangelical  Church.  Protestants  are  charged  with  individualism 
and  disintegrating  tendencies,  while  in  its  very  nature  Catholicism 
is  more  united  and  more  socialistic.  The  Pope's  encyclical  on  the 
labor  question  has  made  special  attention  to  the  workmen  a  duty  of 
the  priesthood.  Before  it  appeared,  however,  men  like  Bishop  Kett- 
eler,  of  Mayence,  Moufong,  and  their  co-laborers,  had  directed  atten- 
tion to  the  demand  made  on  the  church  by  the  needy  classes.  The 
priests,  under  the  guidance  of  the  bishops,  and  these  under  the  direc- 
tion of  the  Pope,  have  made  vigorous  efforts  to  keep  the  masses  in 
the  church.  In  this  respect  they  have  been  more  successful  than  the 
Protestants.  It  is  evident  that  the  interest  in  labor  and  the  spiritual 
welfare  of  the  church  were  not  the  sole  considerations  of  the  priest- 
hood. The  CuUurJcampf  united  the  Catholics  into  an  Ultramontane 
political  party,  known  as  the  Centre,  the  strongest  faction  in  the 
German  Parliament.  Votes  were  eagerly  sought  to  secure  the  polit- 
ical aims  of  this  party.  But  whatever  motive  prevailed,  large  Cath- 
olic labor  organizations  have  been  formed  among  miners,  railroad 
employees,  workers  in  iron,  textile  industries,  and  other  trades. 
These  organizations  are  made  auxiliary  to  the  church,  and  the  priests 
have  been  active  in  establisliing  and  promoting  them.  They  are  on 
a  positive  Christian  basis,  and  therefore  oppose  the  anti-religious 
tendencies  of  revolutionary  socialism;  but  on  this  basis  they  labor 
for  the  promotion  of  the  general  interests  of  the  workingmen.  Capi- 
talists and  employers  are  often  invited  to  their  meetings.  The 
numerous  eleemosynary  institutions  of  the  church  and  its  emphasis 
on  deeds  of  charity  have  kept  it  in  touch  with  the  suffering  masses. 
Most  of  the  revolutionary  socialists  have  come  from  the  ranks  of 
Protestantism.       Protestant    labor   organizations    have    also    beeo 


48  CHRISTENDOM. 

formed,  but  they  are  less  numerous  than  among  the  Catholics.  Court 
Preacher  Stoecker,  Rev.  Naumann,  Rev.  Eoehre,  and  many  others, 
preachers  and  laymen,  have  tried  to  arouse  the  Evangelical  Church 
to  a  deeper  and  more  active  interest  in  the  labor  problem,  and  their 
efforts  have  not  been  in  vain.  But  under  the  plea  that  they  might 
aid  the  Social  Democracy  they  have  met  with  opposition  from  the 
court  and  the  moneyed  aristocracy.  The  Christian  social  leaven, 
however,  cannot  be  checked ;  and  in  many  instances  the  inner  mission 
surpasses  in  efficiency  the  eleemosynary  institutions  of  Catholicism, 
and  at  the  same  time  promotes  Christian  freedom  and  a  healthy 
Biblical  piety. 

In  the  United  States  the  beginning  of  the  modern  Christian  social 
movement  is  less  clearly  marked  than  in  Europe.  It  is  not  surpris- 
ing that  so  long  as  slavery  existed,  public  attention  should  be  but 
little  concerned  with  the  problems  of  free  labor.  Even  before  the 
civil  war,  however,  labor  had  its  grievances,  formed  organizations, 
and  carried  on  agitations  for  better  conditions.  America  was  caUed 
the  paradise  of  laborers.  The  country  was  large  and  rich  in  re- 
sources that  needed  development ;  labor  was  abundant,  food  cheap, 
while  wages  were  high,  and  the  political  advantages  of  workingmen 
the  greatest  in  the  world.  Even  then  their  favorable  condition  was, 
no  doubt,  generally  over-estimated  by  the  other  classes,  because  not 
carefully  investigated.  A  great  change  took  place  when  the  slaves 
were  freed  and  became  competitors  in  the  labor  market,  when  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  emigrants  landed  from  Europe  and  Asia,  when 
the  best  arable  and  the  most  accessible  land  was  taken  by  actual 
settlers,  corporations,  or  speculators,  and  when  laborers  found  it 
difficult  to  become  employers  or  capitalists  because  the  existing  op- 
portunities were  seized  by  men  of  means,  and  also  because  business 
enterprises  became  so  extensive  as  to  require  large  sums  of  money. 
Discontent  increased  in  labor  circles;  yet  long  after  socialism  had 
gained  prominence  in  Europe  Americans  boasted  that  the  United 
States  had  no  social  problem.  The  singular  apathy  of  capitalists 
and  employers  toward  the  situation  of  laborers  is  largely  due  to  a 
failure  to  perceive  that  organic  connection  of  society  which  makes 
the  interest  of  one  class  the  concern  of  all,  and  to  that  false  indi- 
vidualism which  adopts  the  theory  "Each  one  for  himself,"  and 
leaves  it  to  every  man  to  work  out  his  own  destiny  as  best  he  can. 
Heathenism  prevailed  under  the  guise  of  a  Christian  freedom  which 
totally  lacked  the  brotherly  element  of  Christianity.     Crises  came 


SOCIAL    ASPECT    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  49 

when  labor  was  scarce  and  multitudes  were  out  of  employment  and 
in  need.  At  such  times  there  were  vigorous  manifestations  of  im- 
ported socialistic  and  anarchistic  theories.  The  poorer  classes 
drifted  into  the  slums,  the  abode  of  vice  and  crime,  of  filth  and 
misery.  The  vast  accumulations  of  wealth,  the  increase  of  luxury 
and  extravagant  display,  and  the  influence  of  money  in  social  and 
political  and  ecclesiastical  affairs,  made  the  contrast  the  more  strik- 
ing, because  in  theory  all  men  were  regarded  as  equal.  In  Europe, 
as  well  as  in  America,  the  view  spread  that  the  American  laborer 
had  lost  his  former  advantages  and  was  gradually  sinking  to  the 
European  level.  With  a  theoretical  training  in  political  and  re- 
ligious independence  and  equality  the  American  workingmen  felt 
that  in  respect  to  the  church,  to  culture,  and  in  courts  of  justice,  they 
were  at  a  great  disadvantage.  They  were  embittered,  denounced 
existing  social  conditions,  and  charged  the  church  with  being  an  in- 
stitution of  the  rich  and  respectable  classes.  Ministers  came  in  for 
their  share  of  abuse  as  slaves  of  the  wealthy,  on  whom  they  depended 
for  their  salaries.  The  growing  alienation  between  the  classes,  and 
of  laborers  from  the  church,  was  gradual  and  even  imperceptible 
until  too  marked  any  longer  to  escape  attention.  It  was  discovered 
that  America  has  a  social  problem  of  great  magnitude  and  pecu- 
liarly dangerous.  The  laborers  are  in  the  majority,  and  by  union 
can  exert  the  strongest  political  and  martial  force.  Every  one 
knows  what  this  means  in  a  free  state  where  the  majority  rule,  the 
people  are  sovereign,  and  no  large  standing  army  exists  to  coerce 
them.  The  freedom,  intelligence,  traditions,  and  ideals  of  the  la- 
borer increase  his  demands  as  well  as  his  power  of  realization. 

It  is  not  more  strange  that  slavery  could  exist  in  a  land  other- 
wise the  freest  on  earth  than  that  in  the  same  land  the  labor  move- 
ment should  so  long  be  left  to  laborers,  as  if  of  no  interest  to  the 
other  members  of  society.  Frequent  reference  was  made  to  the 
sacredness  of  property,  for  the  protection  of  which  the  strictest  laws 
must  be  enacted  and  all  the  powers  of  the  Government  exerted ;  but 
it  was  often  ignored  that  property  has  value  only  for  man's  sake  and 
that  it  is  wrong  to  exploit  men  for  the  sake  of  property.  Gradually, 
however,  it  became  apparent  that  the  labor  problem  is  a  social  prob- 
lem, that  it  affects  capital  and  the  rich  as  well  as  labor,  and  concerns 
the  church,  the  state,  civilization,  itself,  and  all  the  relations  of 
aaan  to  man. 

The  church  in  the  United  States  naturally  partook  of  the  views 


50  CHRISTENDOM. 

generally  prevalent  respecting  labor.  Prosperity  was  supposed  to  be 
so  universal,  or  within  the  reach  of  all,  that  there  appeared  to  be  no 
need  for  a  special  consideration  of  laborers.  The  man  who  spoke  of 
classes  as  actually  existing  in  American  society  was  liable  to  be 
branded  as  a  demagogue,  until  the  class  consciousness  of  laborers  and 
their  conflicts  with  capital  left  no  doubt  on  the  subject.  Class  dis- 
tinctions were  attributed  to  churches  themselves.  Down-town  was 
left  to  the  poorer  people,  often  foreigners  and  Catholics,  and  the 
Protestant  churches  moved  up-town.  Large  districts,  densely  popu- 
lated, were  neglected  or  provided  with  mission  chapels  which  lacked 
the  attractions  of  the  elegant  churches  in  the  wealthier  parts  of  the 
city.  The  separation  of  the  wealthy  and  middle  classes  from  the 
laborers  is  neither  universal  nor  always  desired  by  the  churches ;  but 
it  is  too  common  among  Protestants  and  contrasts  painfully  with  the 
union  of  all  classes  in  the  same  Catholic  service.  Recently  many 
Protestant  churches  have  been  more  ready  to  welcome  laborers  heart- 
ily than  laborers  were  to  give  a  favorable  response.  Often  the  preju- 
dice of  workingmen  against  the  church  is  fostered  mainly  by  a  few 
churches  of  peculiar  prominence,  where  the  dominance  of  wealth  and 
love  of  display  prevent  laborers  from  feeling  at  home.  The  charge 
that  the  pastors  and  the  people  do  not  study  the  labor  problem,  and 
fail  to  advocate  impartial  justice  in  labor  conflicts,  has  truth  in  it, 
but  is  by  no  means  universally  applicable.  Great  progress  has  been 
made  within  a  few  decades ;  but  in  interest  in  the  social  problem  and 
in  efforts  for  its  solution  on  Christian  principles,  America  is  still  far 
behind  England  and  Germany. 

The  pulpit  here,  as  elsewhere,  promoted  the  labor  movement  by 
preaching  liberty,  equality,  the  worth  of  man,  the  value  of  character, 
and  Christ's  law  of  human  brotherhood.  The  hope  that  in  America 
the  realization  would  come  first  deepened  the  despair  as  the  ideal 
Beemed  to  recede.  Preachers  always  existed  who  were  the  best  friends 
of  laborers  and  sought  to  apply  the  whole  Gospel  of  Christ  to  them 
and  their  situation;  but  it  cannot  be  claimed  as  characteristic  of 
American  Christianity  that  pastors  and  churches  regarded  it  as  their 
supreme  call  to  seek  the  needy  classes  to  which  Jesus  was  most  drawn 
and  who  responded  most  favorably  to  His  message.  The  smaller  do- 
nominations,  doing  extensive  missionary  work,  and  such  as  are  com- 
))osed  chiefly  of  foreigners,  have,  of  course,  a  large  percentage  of 
laborers,  and  in  all  denominations  there  are  congregations  in  which 
workingmen  are  prominent. 


SOCIAL    ASPECT    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  51 

The  religious  social  movement  in  the  United  States  was  mainly 
inaugurated  and  carried  forward  by  individuals.  Their  pioneer 
work  often  isolated  them ;  not  on^y  were  they  without  sympathy  from 
their  brethren,  but  even  subject  to  denunciation  and  persecution. 
During  the  sharp  and  bitter  conflicts  between  capital  and  labor, 
sympathy  expressed  for  workingmen  was  liable  to  be  interpreted  as 
hostility  to  capitalists.  With  no  state  church,  with  numerous  de- 
nominations as  competitors  and  rivals,  with  organizations  often 
loose,  scattered  over  a  great  extent  of  territory,  and  with  little  union 
between  them,  it  is  not  strange  that  the  movement  should  be  more 
individualistic  than  in  Europe.  Here,  however,  as  in  England,  the 
Episcopal  Church  has  special  organizations  for  the  laboring  classes, 
such  as  the  Church  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  the  Interests 
of  Labor  and  the  Christian  Social  Union. 

Communistic  experiments,  some  on  a  religious  basis,  are  old  in  the 
United  States.  One  of  these,  American  in  origin,  shows  that  an 
effort  was  made  to  introduce  Christian  socialism  about  the  same  time 
as  in  England.  In  1854,  a  work  entitled  "Practical  Christian 
Socialism"  appeared.  Its  author,  Adin  Ballou,  was  a  Universalist 
preacher  and  founder  of  the  Hopedale  Community.  The  large  vol- 
ume seems  to  have  fallen  still-born  from  the  press.  The  Com- 
munity, founded  in  1841,  existed  only  seventeen  years,  was  near  its 
end  when  the  book  appeared,  and  this  may  have  contributed  to  the 
neglect  of  the  volume,  which  deserved  a  better  fate.  Many  of  the 
discussions  are  able  and  contain  valuable  expositions  of  society.  The 
author  proposes  to  give  a  "true  system  of  human  society,"  basing 
it  on  the  teaching  of  Jesus  Christ.  The  book  reveals  a  sublime  faith 
in  the  social  righteousness  to  be  established  by  the  Christian  re- 
ligion, and  in  the  help  of  God.  Theological  dogmatism  is  avoided ; 
practical  Christianity  is  advocated ;  the  importance  of  the  individual 
is  emphasized,  and  stress  placed  on  his  freedom  and  individuality ; 
and  mind,  heart  and  conscience  are  exalted  about  the  external  sur- 
roundings. Love  and  the  spirit  of  brotherhood  were  to  dominate 
society  instead  of  the  worldly  methods  of  force  and  competitive 
rivalry. 

It  is  indicative  of  the  neglect  of  the  social  aspect  of  Christianity 
that  no  attempt  was  made  by  Christian  scholars  to  give  the  social 
system  involved  in  the  teachings  of  the  New  Testament.  There  is 
little  hope  of  uniting  Christian  social  workers  until  a  definite  idea  is 
formed  of  the  Biblical  conception  of  the  nature,  relations,  responsi- 


52  CHRISTENDOM. 

bilities  and  agencies  of  Christian  society.  In  order  to  direct  atten- 
tion to  the  importance  of  the  subject  and  to  give  hints  for  its  de- 
velopment, a  volume  entitled  "Christian  Sociology,"  by  J.  H.  W. 
Stuckenberg,  was  published  in  1880.  As  this  was  the  first  time  that 
the  term  Cliristian  sociology  was  used,  it  became  the  occasion  of 
much  discussion  then  and  since.  It  has  now  been  permanently  es- 
tablished, stands  for  an  extensive  literature,  and  designates  a.  specific 
sphere  of  Christian  inquiry.  It  makes  no  claim  to  supersede,  or 
dictate  to,  general  sociology,  but  holds  that  the  principles  of  Chris- 
tian society  are  found  in  Scripture  and  can  be  formulated  into  a 
system.  The  volume  defines  Christian  sociology  "as  the  science  of 
Christian  society,  or  as  the  science  of  that  society  which  is  controlled 
by  Christian  principles.  Its  aim  is  to  describe  this  society;  to  ex- 
plain its  origin,  nature,  laws,  relations  and  purposes.  This  science 
will  be  perfect  in  proportion  as  it  gives  the  distinguishing  charac- 
teristics of  Christian  society  and  indicates  the  relation  of  this  society 
to  other  societies."  While  Christian  socialism  is  practical  in  its  aim, 
Christian  sociology  aims  at  a  science  of  Christian  society  in  the  same 
sense  that  theology  and  Christian  ethics  are  called  sciences. 

Numerous  other  Christian  social  works  of  a  later  date  have  ap- 
peared, such  as  those  of  R.  Heber  Newton,  Herron,  Gladden,  Abbott, 
Hodges,  Bliss,  Lorimer,  and  others.  The  interest  awakened  in  the 
subject  is  evident  from  the  space  given  to  social  matters  in  the  re- 
ligious press,  and  from  the  prominence  of  the  theme  in  conventions, 
in  the  pulpit,  on  the  platform,  and  in  schools.  Numerous  special 
journals  have  also  been  established  to  promote  the  social  work  of  the 
church.  In  America,  as  well  as  in  England  and  other  countries,  the 
Salvation  Army  is  doing  valuable  service  in  meeting  the  needs  of  the 
poorer  members  of  society;  its  labors  are  too  well  known,  however, 
to  require  extended  notice. 

A  general  survey  of  the  social  activity  of  the  Protestant  Church  in 
different  countries  does  not  enable  us  to  claim  that  as  an  institution 
it  has  anywhere  given  a  dominant  place  to  the  social  aspect  of  Chris- 
tianity. The  pul)ject  has  frequently  been  discussed  and  resolutions 
on  social  work  have  been  adopted,  but  as  a  body  the  cliurch  has  not 
committed  itself.  No  platform  exists  on  which  all  the  workers 
stand,  and  no  uniform  method  has  been  adopted.  Individuals  and 
associations  undertake  different  kinds  of  work,  but  there  is  no  union 
of  Christian  reformers  or  of  Christian  reforms.  The  lack  of  a  defi- 
nite understanding  and  of  organized  cooperation  is  a  hindrance  to 


SOCIAL    ASPECT    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  53 

success.  But  everywhere  the  social  spirit  has  been  developed  and  the 
social  conscience  quickened.  The  social  factors  of  Christianity,  the 
character,  power,  and  mission  of  Christian  society,  and  the  methods 
of  Christian  sociality,  receive  an  amount  of  attention  in  the  church 
and  religious  literature  altogether  unknown  a  few  decades  since. 
Many  pastors  are  students  of  sociology,  of  social  conditions,  and  of 
the  means  of  removing  social  ills  and  elevating  the  masses. 
Churches  are  more  intent  on  attracting  laborers,  and  in  a  number  of 
instances  the  pews  have  been  made  free  and  services  specially 
adapted  to  the  masses.  Workingmen  also  speak  more  kindly  of  the 
church  since  they  find  it  more  friendly  to  the  cause  of  labor.  The 
Christian  social  movement  is  here  to  stay.  It  is  only  in  its  initiatory 
stages,  is  making  progress  both  in  extent  and  in  power,  and  promises 
to  gain  a  controlling  influence  in  the  future.  Its  character  and  pur- 
pose are,  however,  frequently  misunderstood,  and  therefore  it  is 
necessary  to  explain  them. 

It  aims  to  socialize  the  churches,  to  create  an  interest  in  all  that 
pertains  to  social  welfare,  and  to  substitute  for  the  perverted  concep- 
tions of  society,  so  often  prevalent  even  in  churches,  the  social  aspect 
contained  in  Scripture.  In  spite  of  the  extensive  literature  on  the 
subject,  a  complete  Biblical  conception  has  not  yet  been  attained, 
which  accounts  for  the  conflicting  notions  respecting  the  social  re- 
quirements of  the  Gospel.  The  diversity  regarding  what  is  required 
is  due  to  the  fact  that  the  investigation  is  new,  the  material  is  ex- 
tensive, investigators  come  with  preconceived  views,  and  on  the 
burning  social  problems  prejudice  is  easily  excited.  Much  and  pro- 
found research  is  still  required  in  order  to  appropriate,  systematize, 
and  apply  the  social  wealth  of  the  Bible. 

The  economic  theories  adopted  by  social  thinkers  and  workers 
must  not  be  confounded  with  the  Biblical  aspect  of  society.  Scrip- 
ture does  not  propose  to  teach  the  laws  of  production,  exchange,  dis- 
tribution, and  consumption  of  wealth,  but  establishes  certain  funda- 
mental principles  as  the  guides  of  men  in  their  industrial  relations. 
With  the  same  Christian  motives  different  economic  theories  may  tx>. 
adopted,  if  not  in  conflict  with  Scripture,  the  choice  being  deter- 
mined by  questions  of  expediency.  Neither  can  the  effort  to  make 
society  communistic  according  to  the  model  at  the  close  of  the  second 
chapter  of  Acts  be  regarded  as  a  law.  Under  the  inspiration  of  the 
day  of  Pentecost  the  religious  fervor  and  brotherly  love  of  the  be- 
lievers established  a  species  of  communism,  so  that  they  "had.  all 


64  CHRISTENDOM. 

things  in  common,  and  sold  their  possessions  and  goods,  and  parted 
them  to  all  men,  as  every  man  had  need."  This  was  wholly  volun- 
tary, did  not  become  a  rule  for  the  Apostolic  Church,  was  no  doubt 
soon  abandoned,  because  impracticable,  and  might  work  well  in  a 
particular  community  under  special  circumstances  and  fail  in  others. 
What  believers  actually  hold  in  common  and  share  with  each  other 
is  a  profound  problem  which  that  early  experiment  could  not  settle 
for  all  Christians  and  all  times.  Frequently  some  kind  of  coopera- 
tion is  far  more  expedient  than  communism,  and  Christian  socialism 
in  England  bas  been  promotive  of  an  extensive  cooperative  movement, 
especially  in  the  form  of  distribution.  According  to  the  Gospels  and 
Epistles,  charity  and  helpfulness  are  to  be  exercised  for  the  relief  of 
need  and  suffering,  but  the  methods  are  left  to  Christian  freedom 
and  wisdom. 

Even  among  those  called  Christian  socialists  different  economic 
theories  may  be  adopted  for  the  reform  and  reconstruction  of  society. 
That,  from  a  Christian  standpoint,  the  present  social  condition,  with 
its  unjust  distinctions,  its  vice,  crime,  and  misery,  is  intolerable  and 
demands  a  radical  transformation  cannot  be  questioned.  The  tares 
are  ripe  for  the  burning.  So  many  things  are  involved  in  the  re- 
construction on  Christian  principles  that  the  problem  can  only  be 
solved  tentatively  and  progressively.  The  Rev.  W.  D.  P.  Bliss  de- 
fines the  essence  of  Christian  socialism  as  "the  application  to  society 
of  the  way  of  Christ.  It  believes  that  Christ  has  a  social  way,  and 
that  only  in  this  way  are  there  healing  and  wholeness  for  the  na- 
tions. *  *  *  Christian  socialism  follows  from,  and  is  involved 
in,  personal  obedience  to  Christ.  It  is  first  Christian.  Its  starting 
point  is  the  Incarnation. 

The  new  social  gospel  of  Christian  thinkers  and  workers  is  simply 
an  effort  to  restore  the  original  Gospel  to  its  proper  place  in  the 
church  and  to  make  it  effective  by  means  of  the  spirit  of  Christ. 
Whatever  differences  exist,  this  is  the  heart  and  the  purpose.  The 
social  aspect  of  Christianity  makes  a  specialty  of  the  teachings  of 
Christ  and  the  Apostles  respecting  society.  Many  of  these  teachings 
are  plain  and  oft-repeated,  but  they  have  been  overlooked  by  the 
individualistic  tendencies,  or  have  at  least  not  been  fully  appre- 
ciated and  properly  embodied  in  life.  Christian  society  recognizes 
God  as  its  spiritual  Father,  Christ  as  its  Founder  and  Elder  Brother, 
love  as  its  essence  which  constitutes  the  members  of  real  brother- 
hood, with  the  Gospel  as  its  basis,  with  the  spirit  of  Christ  as  its 


SOCIAL    ASPECT    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  55 

guide,  and  with  humanity  and  the  world  as  the  sphere  of  its  activity. 
Children  of  the  same  Father  are,  of  course,  brothers;  but  this  ideal 
relation  is  to  be  made  a  living  actuality.  As  God  must  be  loved 
supremely,  so  the  neighbor  is  to  be  loved  as  self.  The  old  and  nar- 
row particularism  of  Jews  and  Gentiles  is  to  be  overcome  by  making 
neighbor  mean  especially  one  in  need,  regardless  of  nationality  and 
creed.  Humanity  constitutes  neighborhood.  The  Golden  Rule  is 
the  Christian  law:  "All  things  whatsoever  ye  would  that  men 
should  do  to  you,  do  ye  even  so  to  them :  for  this  is  the  law  and  the 
prophets."  We  must  forgive  others  if  we  want  God  to  forgive  us; 
that  means  we  are  to  do  to  our  fellow-men  what  we  want  God  to  do 
to  us.  By  his  royal  law  of  service  Jesus  overthrows  the  Oriental 
heathenism  which  made  greatness  consist  in  being  served,  while  He 
begins  a  new  world  by  making  him  greatest  who  serves  most.  'TBut 
whosoever  will  be  great  among  you,  let  him  be  your  minister;  and 
whosoever  will  be  chief  among  you,  let  him  be  your  servant ;  even  as 
the  Son  of  Man  came  not  to  be  ministered  unto,  but  to  minister,  and 
to  give  His  life  a  ransom  for  many."  Men  ordinarily  seek  such  as 
can  help  and  exalt  them ;  Jesus  is  unique  in  that  he  seeks  those  who 
need  Him  most,  and  thus  He  gives  a  new  law  for  His  followers. 

As  distinct  from  His  teaching  by  word  of  mouth,  Jesus  must 
Himself  be  taken  as  the  Word  and  the  social  model.  He  lived  His  doc- 
trine and  made  His  life  the  doctrine  for  His  Disciples.  No  dog- 
matic system  can  give  full  expression  to  this  personal  element;  the 
command  is  to  go  and  do  likewise.  Christianity  is  a  spirit,  and  that 
spirit  is  Christ.  An  important  factor  in  the  mighty  revolution  He 
wrought  consisted  in  the  infinite  tenderness  with  which  He  sought 
the  most  needy  and  embraced  them  in  His  compassionate  heart,  be- 
coming the  friend  of  the  friendless,  the  helper  of  the  helpless, 
preaching  to  them,  and  then  illustrating  His  preaching  by  feeding 
the  hungry,  healing  the  sick,  comforting  the  distressed,  and  receiving 
sinners  and  eating  with  them.  He  saved  those  whom  we  call  aban- 
doned, and  to  the  man  who  fell  among  thieves  He  is  the  Good  Sa- 
maritan. His  mission  is  to  the  surroundings  of  men  as  well  as  to 
men  themselves ;  therefore  He  denounces  the  mammonism  of  His  day 
with  its  fiendish  covetousness,  the  ceremonialism  with  its  displays 
before  men  as  a  substitute  for  religion,  the  tradition  of  the  elders 
put  in  place  of  the  decrees  of  God,  and  that  entire  religious  and  po- 
litical degradation  which  made  Him  weep  over  Jerusalem. 

Christ's  social  work  can  be  a  mystery  to  such  only  as  will  not  sec. 


56  CHRISTENDOM. 

It  is  inner  and  spiritual,  but  at  the  same  time  penetrates  and  per- 
vades the  entire  human  cosmos,  touching  and  transforming  all  of 
mans  relations  and  conditions.  The  Disciples  are  commissioned  to 
preach,  to  heal  the  sick,  cleanse  the  lepers,  raise  the  dead,  and  cast 
out  devils.     He  regenerates  men,  and  with  them  tlie  world. 

The  new  emphasis  on  the  study  of  Scripture,  on  practical  religion, 
and  on  sociality  gave  prominence  to  these  neglected  Biblical  teach- 
ings. It  was  discovered  that  the  Bible  is  marvelously  rich  in  teach- 
ings applicable  to  the  social  agitations  and  miseries  of  our  times. 
The  possibilities  which  our  Lord  opened  up  to  the  neglected  masses 
have  a  meaning  in  relation  to  the  insistence  of  the  poorer  members 
of  society  for  recognition,  for  better  culture,  for  greater  opportuni- 
ties. If  in  Christian  lands  they  were  content  with  a  degraded  con- 
dition, it  would  prove  Christianity,  so  far  as  they  arc'  concerned,  a 
failure.  Men  looked  at  the  abject  heathenism  in  the  centres  of  our 
most  Christian  civilization  and  asked,  "Were  Christ  to  come,  what 
would  He  do?"  Christians  truly  alive  insisted  that  the  time  had 
come  for  judgment  to  begin  at  the  house  of  God,  for  worldliness  to 
be  scourged  out  of  the  temple,  and  for  a  restoration  of  the  spirit  and 
work  of  Christ  and  the  Apostles  to  the  church. 

While  men  of  the  world  looked  to  the  church  to  take  the  lead  in  the 
social  regeneration,  objections  were  raised  by  the  pulpit  and  laymen. 
The  effort  to  extend  religion  to  all  human  relations  according  to  the 
New  Testament  model  was  opposed  by  professing  Christians,  who 
said,  "Preach  the  Gospel."  By  the  Gospel  they  meant  individual 
salvation,  doctrines  in  a  narrow  sense  spiritual.  "Preach  the  Gos- 
pel" was  said  to  those  who  advocated  political  purity,  temperance, 
honesty  in  business,  mercy  for  the  needy,  and  a  Christian  humani- 
tarianism.  The  very  preaching  they  wanted  had,  however,  prevailed 
all  along,  and  in  the  midst  of  it  the  existing  social  wretchedness  had 
developed.  Another  objection  was  that  social  affairs  are  determined 
by  nature,  and  therefore  inevitable,  or  by  God,  and  therefore  can  be 
opposed  only  in  defiance  of  His  will !  Since  then  some  have  learned 
that  social  affairs  are  largely  of  human  creation  and  subject  to  hu- 
man volition. 

The  social  awakening  of  Christians  led  to  an  apprehension  of  the 
teachings  of  the  New  Testament  respecting  the  socializing  and  or- 
ganizing influence  of  Christianity.  It  became  evident  that  Jesus 
gave  a  prominence  to  the  Kingdom  of  God  which  had  been  lost  sight 
of  by  the  Christian  consciousness.     In  Germany,  Ritschl  laid  great 


SOCIAL    ASPECT    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  57 

stress  on  the  Kingdom  as  a  dominant  factor  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus, 
and,  however  viewed  in  other  respects,  the  wide  influence  of  the  new 
theology  concentrated  attention  again  on  this  neglected  doctrine.  To 
identify  God's  Kingdom  with  a  church  and  with  the  limited  sphere 
of  its  organized  labors  was  recognized  as  a  perversion.  It  means  the 
spiritual  dominion  or  reign  of  God,  and  the  Kingdom  exists  wher- 
ever this  dominion  is  found.  It  thus  includes  all  true  spiritual 
activity  on  earth,  whether  inside  or  outside  of  the  organized  church. 
The  revival  of  the  doctrine  of  the  kingdom  socializes  Christianity 
and  overcomes  the  old  individualism  which  is  intent  only  on  saving 
the  individual  and  embodying  him  in  the  church. 

The  oneness  of  believers  is  likewise  indicated  by  representing  them 
as  a  family  by  Christ  and  the  Apostles,  as  a  household  of  faith  and  a 
brotherhood;  as  an  organism,  either  as  a  vine  and  its  branches,  or  as 
a  body  with  its  organs ;  as  a  flock  under  Christ,  the  Good  Shepherd ; 
as  a  temple  or  building  of  God ;  and  as  a  church.  Christ  prays  that 
between  believers  the  same  unity  may  exist  as  between  Himself  and 
the  Father,  and  that  this  unity  be  made  evident  to  the  world.  This 
oneness  of  Christians  has  significance  for  the  world  as  well  as  for 
their  own  sake.     Through  their  labors  humanity  is  to  be  discipled. 

The  social  awakening  of  the  church  also  gave  a  new  meaning  to 
this  life.  The  importance  attached  by  Christ  to  society  and  the 
blessings  He  offered  in  this  world  made  it^ssible  to  defer  all  the 
glories  of  the  Christian  to  the  life  to  come.  Jesus  reveals  a  passion 
for  humanity.  We  have  seen  that  His  teaching  respecting  man  in- 
cludes all  of  man  and  all  his  relations  and  surroundings.  This  truth 
is  enforced  by  the  fact  that  the  physical  and  intellectual  life,  the 
natural  conditions  and  secular  social  relations,  exert  a  marked  influ- 
ence on  spirituality.  There  are  environments  whose  atmosphere  is 
pollution,  and  only  by  changing  them  can  religion  flourish  in  them. 
Hence  the  concern  of  Christianity  for  the  home  and  whatever  affects 
family  life;  its  relation  to  politics,  to  sanitation,  to  slums,  the  saloon, 
to  recreation  and  amusement,  to  the  schools  and  charitable  institu- 
tions. To  neglect  them  is  suicidal.  In  this  world  a  spirit  without 
a  body  is  a  ghost ;  and  an  isolated  spirituality  is  ghostly. 

This  religious  extension  has  brought  the  church  into  spheres  of 
activity  formerly  but  little  regarded.  It  has  a  new  message  to  cap- 
ital and  labor ;  to  municipalities,  states,  and  nations ;  to  women  and 
children  that  should  be  at  home  but  wander  into  factories ;  to  sweat- 
shops and  palaces ;  to  culture  and  ignorance.     Just  as  in  the  heathen 


5S  CHRISTENDOM. 

world  missionaries  seek  to  transform  the  total  pliysical  and  mental 
condition,  together  with  the  moral  and  religious,  so  in  lands  called 
Christian  the  church  is  learning  that  it  has  part  in  all  that  is  organ- 
ically connected  with  the  church,  and  that  all  ought  to  be  spiritual- 
ized. Hence  the  church  is  changing — we  live  in  an  era  of  transition 
respecting  its  relations  and  methods.  The  problem  has  been  seized, 
how  to  enter  this  wondrously  complex  modern  life,  with  its  enlarged 
range  of  thought,  feeling  and  activity,  with  its  denial  of  authority 
and  culture  of  anarchism,  and  to  leaven  every  part  of  it  with  the 
Gospel.  Churches  are  even  socially  transformed  which  do  not  form- 
ally change  their  methods.  More  attention  is  given  to  questions  of 
social  justice  and  mercy  in  economics,  politics,  and  human  inter- 
course in  general.  Churches  are  inquiring  how  far,  by  their  neglect 
or  example,  ihey  are  responsible  for  the  abandoned  and  outcasts ;  for 
Dives  and  Lazainis;  for  the  corruptness  in  government;  for  the 
prevalence  of  vice,  crime,  and  illiteracy;  and  for  the  social  shams 
which  have  taken  the  place  of  mind  and  heart.  That  a  new  Chris- 
tian world  has  been  entered  is  proved  by  the  tone  of  the  pulpit  and 
the  character  of  religious  literature. 

Besides  this  change  in  the  church  in  general,  many  churches  are 
instituting  special  means  for  meeting  the  social  demands.  They  are 
becoming  in  a  fuller  sense  eleemosynary  institutions.  Agencies  are 
also  established  for  various  kinds  of  instruction.  Civic  leagues  and 
good  citizenship  classes  are  formed,  the  neglected  are  taught  and 
trained  in  industry  and  thrift,  and  Christians  are  prepared  for 
undertaking  social  work  among  the  needy.  Settlements  have  been 
established  for  the  purpose  of  bringing  the  different  social  grades 
together  and  giving  opportunities  for  refinement  and  culture  to  the 
poorer  classes.  They  are  also  valuable  aids  in  purifying  the  ex- 
ternal environment,  and  in  increasing  the  vigilance  and  efficiency  of 
the  police  and  other  public  authorities.  Institutional  churches  have 
been  organized  in  cities  and  also  in  country  districts,  for  the  purpose 
of  applying  the  principles  of  Christ  to  every  species  of  individual 
and  social  need.  They  differ  according  to  locality  and  requirements, 
the  aim  being  to  make  an  application  of  the  Gospel  to  all  the  rela- 
tions and  necessities  of  men.  The  Sunday  services  are  made  attrac- 
tive and  popular  so  as  to  win  all  classes ;  life  is  studied  with  a  view 
to  discovering  and  meeting  its  needs ;  classes  arc  formed  for  promot- 
ing various  studies  or  for  instructing  in  the  evening  such  persons  as 
are  engaged  during  the  day ;  agencies  are  established  for  advice  and 


SOCIAL    ASPECT    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  59 

relief;  and  offices  at  the  church  are  kept  open  day  and  evening  for 
consultation  and  service.  In  this  way  the  church  is  made  in  the 
truest  sense  a  missionary  and  social  institution.  It  can  recommend 
and  circulate  the  best  literature,  establish  societies  as  needed  by  the 
community,  furnish  profitable  recreation  and  entertainment,  and  can 
become  the  centre  from  which  light  radiates  in  every  direction. 
Many  Christian  societies  are  also  organized,  in  various  places,  with- 
out direct  connection  with  the  church,  which  aim  to  carry  on  works 
of  reform,  that  of  temperance  being  specially  prominent.  It  is  evi- 
dent that  there  is  much  religious  effort  which  is  not  in  the  organized 
church,  but  flourishes  in  the  Kingdom  of  God. 

The  fear  that  this  religious  extension  into  regions  formerly  sharp- 
ly separated  as  secular  or  worldly,  common  and  unclean,  might  rob 
the  church  of  its  spirituality  is  proving  groundless.  That  in  the 
first  reaction  against  false  traditional  methods  there  should  be  ex- 
tremes is  not  surprising.  With  time  and  experience  these  evils  will 
be  corrected.  A  religion  which  thoroughly  penetrates  every  phase  of 
social  life  is  immeasurably  more  valuable  than  a  religion  which 
isolates  itself.  The  pulpit  occupies  a  larger  sphere  in  this  religious 
extension;  it  applies  its  message  to  all  the  human  actualities,  and 
thus  attains  that  reality  which  is  an  urgent  demand  of  the  age. 
Suddenly  a  vast  field  has  been  opened  up  to  Christian  effort,  and  in 
entering  it  new  life,  new  power,  and  greater  influence  may  be  ex- 
pected by  the  pulpit  and  the  church. 

Thus  far  the  social  movement  has  considered  the  social  problem 
chiefly  as  it  involves  the  workmgmen.  But  there  is  also  a  social 
problem  among  the  rich — how  they  can  maintain  themselves  amid 
growing  discontent,  the  increasing  power  of  the  masses  with  the 
ballot,  and  the  determination  to  overthrow  all  unjust  inequalities; 
what  the  duties  of  wealth  are  to  the  less  favorably  situated ;  and  how 
the  power  of  wealth  can  be  consecrated  to  the  highest  leadership  in 
religion,  politics,  economics,  and  culture.  As  no  other  institution, 
the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  rises  above  class  distinctions  and  class 
prejudice,  and  has  the  means  for  uniting,  on  the  basis  of  the  Gospel, 
all  the  social  grades  and  conditions.  This  will  be  a  matter  of  course 
so  soon  as  the  prevailing  worldly  tests  of  society  yield  to  those  of 
Christian  love  and  brotherhood.  Some  pastors  and  laymen  despair 
of  the  prospect  of  Christianizing  the  churches  sufficiently  to  enable 
them  to  seize  this  glorious  mission,  and  therefore  they  organize 
churches  especially  for  laborers.     Whatever  demand  may  exist  for 


60 


CHRISTENDOM. 


them  amid  present  conditions,  the  Christian  ideal  tolerates  no  dis- 
tinctions according  to  external  circumstances  which  ignore  the 
claims  of  character.  The  time  has  evidently  come  for  the  letter  of 
James,  which  has  been  called  the  sociological  Epistle. 

The  Christian  sociality  already  attained  promises  well  for  the 
religions  spirit  and  labors  of  the  new  century.  It  will  no  doubt 
grow  in  knowledge  and  efficiency,  and  thus  prepare  for  the  fuller 
coming  of  the  Kingdom  of  Christ.  The  church  will  become  all 
things  to  all  men  for  the  purpose  of  making  them  the  children  of 
God.  In  this  great  Christian  social  movement  and  religious  exten- 
sion believers  have  the  hope  of  realizing  the  words  of  the  Apostle : 
"All  things  are  yours.  .  .  .  The  earth  is  the  Lord's,  and  the 
fullness  thereof." 


REVIVAL    MOVEMENTS    IN    THE    NINE- 
TEENTH   CENTURY. 


J.  Wilbur  Chapman,  D.D., 

NEW  YOEK. 

[A  revival  presupposes  a  condition  of  deadness  from  which  a  spiritual 
resurrection  is  desired.  The  ideal  condition  would  naturally  be  that  in  which 
a  continuous  state  of  religious  efficiency  is  maintained.  Some  have  even 
ventured  to  coin  the  word  "vival"  as  expressive  of  that  ideal  state.  A 
"revival"  is  etymologically  therefore  a  making  an  individual  or  church  to 
live  again,  after  a  lapse  into  spiritual  lethargy.  But  while  the  desirable  con- 
dition would  be  that  in  which  the  church  is  always  animated  with  the  intens- 
fcst  zeal  and  enthusiasm,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  as  we  look  back  in  history,  we 
note  a  periodic  recurrence  of  seasons  of  spiritual  ebb  and  flow.  The  kingdom 
of  God  in  its  visible  unfolding  has  experienced  a  series  of  retardations  and 
accelerations. 

Surely  the  supreme  need  of  the  church  of  Christ  in  the  opening  years  of 
the  twentieth  century  is  a  revival  of  spiritual  power.  Without  being  unduly 
pessimistic,  we  are  compelled  to  admit  that  the  tendencies  of  the  times  are 
grave  enough  to  call  for  the  most  serious  consideration.  Many  things  that 
ought  to  be  very  sacred  to  Christians  are  imperiled.  The  fundamental  truths 
of  the  evangelical  faith,  the  loyalty  of  the  people  to  that  righteousness  which 
exalteth  a  nation,  and  even  Christianity  itself  as  an  authoritative  revelation 
of  God  to  our  race — all  are  exposed  to  a  storm  of  controversy  which  grows 
more  vehement  every  day.  The  condition  of  the  churches  themselves  is  far 
from  satisfactory.  They  abound  in  activity,  but  their  fruitfulness  is  scanty. 
Statistics  that  have  a  lurid  prominence  in  newspaper  reports  emphasize  a 
widespread  and  growing  conviction  of  spiritual  impotence  and  sterility.  The 
machinery  is  ample  enough,  but  "the  spirit  of  life  is  not  in  the  wheels." 
The  cry  for  years  tas  been  for  an  increase  in  the  number  of  effective  preach- 
ers, for  an  improvement  in  the  organization  of  our  Sunday-schools,  for  a 
better  financial  system,  for  larger  accommodation  for  public  worship,  and  for 
more  attractive  services  in  the  sanctuary.  Cheering  progress  has  been  made 
along  these  lines ;  but  something  more  is  needed,  and  the  need  was  never  felt 
more  keenly  than  now.  That  something  more  is  a  fresh  baptism  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  and  of  fire,  which  alone  can  vitalize  congregational  machinery  and  ac- 
tivity. Its  necessity  has  always  been  acknowledged  in  petition  and  medita- 
tion, but  of  late  the  acknowledgment  has  grown  in  many  hearts  into  a  longing 
of  passionate  intensity. 

But  critical  as  is  the  condition  of  the  church  in  many  respects,  there  Is 
much  to  inspire  every  believer  in  the  vital  forces  of  Christianity  with  con- 

61 


62  CHRISTENDOM. 

fidence.  Men  who  have  a  knowledge  of  the  times  express  the  conviction  that 
we  are  on  the  edge  of  a  great  manifestation  of  the  presence  and  power  of  tne 
Spirit  of  God.  Already  signs  of  a  more  intense  spiritual  life  are  making 
their  appearance  in  our  churches.  The  fire  has  been  kindled,  and  it  is  silently 
but  surely  spreading.  The  prayer  of  many  is  that  it  may  flame  up  into  a 
great  revival  which  shall  sweep  the  continent  from  ocean  to  ocean.  For  the 
sake  of  the  churches,  for  the  sake  of  the  irreligious  multitude,  for  the  sake 
of  the  struggle  with  unbelief  and  with  the  paralj'zing  forces  of  indifiPerentism 
— the  worst  of  all  isms — may  God  grant  the  fulfillment  of  the  prayer  so 
that  the  whole  nation  may  become  conscious  of  the  presence  and  power  of 
the  Holy  Spirit !  Prayerful  expectation  justifies  hopefulness. — Unidentified. 
—Ed.] 

*  «  4( 

The  nineteenth  century,  though  born  in  a  religious  revival, 
passed  away,  apparently,  in  a  state  of  apathy  and  indifference  such 
as  have  not  been  known  in  the  church  for  years. 

Not  apathy,  let  it  be  observed,  regarding  benevolence,  for  the  giv- 
ing of  the  members  of  the  church  has  been  most  generous,  and  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  dollars  have  in  recent  years  passed  through 
its  treasury  for  the  betterment  of  society  and  the  honor  of  Christ. 
Certainly,  never  in  the  world's  history  have  there  been  so  many 
benevolent  works  carried  on  through  the  inspiration  and  under  the 
guidance  of  the  church  as  at  the  present  time. 

Nor  is  indifference  to  religion  so  manifest  in  the  matter  of  attend- 
ance upon  church  services;  while  here  and  there  may  be  found 
churches  where  the  attendance  has  greatly  decreased,  yet,  as  a  matter 
of  fact,  the  morning  service  at  least  continues  to  be  well  attended, 
and  the  interest  in  prayer  meetings,  as  a  rule,  encouraging. 

But  so  far  as  conversions  are  concerned,  the  close  of  the  nineteenth 
century  leaves  ample  room  for  discouragement;  and,  since  it  is  our 
business  to  win  men  to  Christ,  and  to  preach  in  such  a  way  that  sin- 
ners may  be  converted,  there  is  certainly,  as  shown  in  the  reports  of 
the  various  churches,  recently  made,  an  indication  of  a  serious  de- 
fect somewhere  in  the  effectiveness  of  our  services. 

But  our  discouragement  is  evidently  to  be  our  encouragement,  for 
already  we  hear  the  sound  of  a  going  in  the  tops  of  the  mulberry 
trees,  and  in  many  quarters  there  are  not  wanting  signs  of  abundance 
of  rain. 

The  modern  Christianity  presents  us  with  a  glorious  series  of  re- 
vival movements,  a  resume  of  which  is  as  follows : 

First — The  great  Reformation,  properly  beginning  in  the  four- 
teenth and  extending  into  the  sixteenth  century. 


REVIVALS.  63 

Second — The  work  of  God  in  the  seventeenth  century  in  the  days 
of  Owen,  Bunyan,  Baxter  and  Flavel. 

Third — The  great  awakening  in  the  eighteenth  century  in  the  days 
of  Whitefleld,  Wesley,  Edwards,  Brainerd  and  the  Tennents. 

Fourth — The  revival  of  the  nineteenth  century,  beginning  about 
1790  and  reacliing  to  about  the  year  1840. 

Fifth— The  revival  of  1857  to  1860. 

Sixth — The  special  work  of  grace  as  carried  on  under  the  leader- 
ship of  Mr.  Dwight  L.  Moody. 

The  work  of  grace  which  ushered  in  the  nineteenth  century  begaa 
about  the  year  1790.  In  the  old  country  the  fearful  inroads  of 
French  infidelity  had  sapped  the  foundations  of  faith  and  hope  in. 
God,  till  the  hearts  of  the  faithful  began  to  fail  them  for  fear.  This 
aroused  such  men  as  Bishop  Porteus,  Andrew  Fuller,  Rowland  Hill 
and  kindred  spirits  in  England  to  such  noble  efforts  as  greatly 
blessed  the  world ;  a  simultaneous  work  in  Scotland  being  carried  on 
under  the  Haldanes  and  others.  This  Avork  of  grace  was  the  direct 
cause  of  the  formation  of  the  Religious  Tract  Society,  the  British 
and  Foreign  Bible  Society,  the  London  Missionary  and  the  Church 
Missionary  societies;  also  the  first  society  for  evangelizing  the  hea- 
then, and  the  Baptist  Foreign  Missionary  Society.  In  the  north  of 
Wales,  also,  under  the  labors  of  Charles  of  Bala,  the  Apostle  of 
North  Wales,  a  great  revival  occurred  in  the  beginning  of  the  year 
1791. 

The  influence  of  French  infidelity,  aided  and  represented  by 
Paine's  "Age  of  Reason"  and  Voltaire's  assaults  upon  Christianity, 
was  felt  in  America,  until  it  became  fashionable  for  the  upper  classes 
to  sneer  at  the  Bible  and  ridicule  the  foundations  of  the  faith  of  the 
people.  But  when  the  enemy  was  thus  coming  in  like  a  flood  the 
Lord  lifted  up  a  standard  against  him.  In  different  parts  of  the 
country  God  began  to  manifest  Himself  in  the  outpouring  of  His 
Spirit,  as,  for  example,  in  western  Pennsylvania  about  the  year 
1790;  also  in  northern  and  western  A-'irginia,  and  a  little  later  in  the 
Eastern  States.  These  awakenings  introduce  us  to  the  names  of 
such  men  as  Bellamy,  Griffin,  the  younger  Edwards,  Backus,  Mills, 
Dwight,  Livingston,  Nettleton  and  Lyman  Beecher,  besides  many 
others  who  in  their  day  did  not  shun  to  declare  the  whole  counsel 
of  God. 

In  1793  began  the  unbroken  series  of  American  revivals — in 
Maine,  in  Massachusetts,  in  Connecticut,  and,  indeed,  in  all  the  New 


64  CHRISTENDOM. 

England  States.  By  1802  remarkable  revivals  had  spread  through 
most  of  the  Western  and  Northern  States,  while  Dr.  Ashael  Nettle- 
ton  has  left  on  record  the  fact  that,  commencing  with  1798,  not  less 
than  one  hundred  and  fifty  churches  in  New  England  were  favored 
with  the  special  effusions  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  thousands  of  souls 
were  translated  from  the  kingdom  of  darkness  into  the  Kingdom  of 
God's  dear  Son. 

In  1813  Ashael  Nettleton  began  to  preach  as  an  evangelist  and 
continued  his  labors  for  upward  of  twenty  years.  Dr.  Nettleton's 
life  was  marvelously  forceful  and  his  ministry  signally  helpful.  He 
was  a  most  Godly  man,  serious,  circumspect,  discreet,  and  gifted  with 
rare  discrimination,  enabling  him  to  know  and  read  men,  and  greatly 
aiding  him  to  adapt  himself  in  his  instructions  to  men's  various 
moods.  He  preached  and  labored  in  revivals  in  so  wise  a  manner 
as  to  render  religion  and  revivals  real  and  respected.  The  converts, 
with  very  few  exceptions,  were  eminently  intelligent  and  sound,  and 
proved  by  tlieir  subsequent  lives  that  they  possessed  the  power  as 
well  as  the  form  of  Godliness.  For  seven  years  he  labored  in  Con- 
necticut, accomplishing  remarkable  results,  then  made  a  short  tour 
into  the  State  of  New  York  and  back  again  to  Connecticut ;  visited 
England  in  the  spring  of  1831;  returned  to  America  for  subsequent 
labors,  and  died  May  16,  1844,  his  last  words  being,  "While  ye  have 
the  light  walk  in  the  light." 

REVIVALS  IN  COLLEGES. 

Perhaps  nowhere  have  revivals  of  religion  been  oftener  or  better 
illustrated  than  in  colleges. 

In  Oherlin  College,  from  1836  to  1841,  was  a  period  which  was 
regarded  as  almost  a  continuous  revival.  Meetings  for  inquiry 
were  held  every  Sunday.  From  1836  to  1838  there  was  a  season  of 
refreshing  never  to  be  forgotten.  Occasionally  the  theological  reci- 
tation or  lecture  hour  would  be  spent  in  fervent  prayer  and  earnest 
supplication.  When  students  met  in  the  most  casual  way,  before 
they  parted  they  sang  and  prayed  together.  Oherlin  still  feels  the 
power  of  those  days. 

In  Amherst  College,  from  1827  to  1831,  under  the  presidency  of 
Dr.  Heman  Humphry,  there  was  a  great  awakening;  for  several 
weeks  there  was  a  manifest  increase  of  concern  for  those  who  were 
ready  to  perish ;  then  there  came  a  great  outpouring  of  the  Holy 


CHARLES    G.    FINNEY. 


REVIVALS.  65 

Ghost,  and  in  a  very  few  days  the  students  hegan  to  press  into  the 
Kingdom,  and  the  influences  upon  the  institution  were  visible  and 
salutary. 

In  Dartmouth  College,  in  1805  to  1815,  there  was  a  great  revival. 
Suddenly,  without  premonition,  the  Spirit  of  God  descended  and 
saved  the  greater  part  of  the  students.  The  chapel,  the  recitation 
room,  every  place  of  meeting,  became  a  scene  of  weeping.  Most  of 
all  those  who  were  converted  at  this  time  became  ministers  of  the 
Gospel  or  missionaries  of  the  Cross. 

In  1814  there  was  a  great  awakening  in  Princeton.  Every  relig- 
ious service,  both  on  secular  days  and  on  Sundays,  was  attended  with 
a  solemnity  that  was  very  impressive;  then,  suddenly,  without  any 
special  instruction,  deep  searching  of  heart  began  and  lasted  for 
about  four  weeks,  until  there  were  very  few  left  in  the  college  that 
were  not  impressed  with  the  reality  and  importance  of  spiritual  re- 
ligion. It  was  said  that  there  was  not  a  room  that  was  not  a  place 
of  earnest  and  secret  devotion. 

Revivals  in  Yale  College  have  been  of  frequent  occurrence.  They 
began  with  the  presence  of  Edward  Beecher,  who  was  a  tutor  in 
Yale.  He  was  burdened  for  the  condition  of  the  students,  and  one 
Sunday  night  chose  for  his  text,  "If  the  Lord  bo  God,  then  follow 
Him ;  but  if  Baal,  then  follow  him."  From  that  Sunday  service  in 
Yale  College  dates  a  new  era.  Many  impenitent  were  awakened  and 
converted,  and  the  whole  college  was  transformed.  These  are  but  a 
few  of  the  many  tokens  of  Divine  favor  which  have  been  shown  in 
the  educational  institutions  of  the  land.  Since  then,  under  the 
direction  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association,  there  is  not  a 
college  in  all  the  land  but  has  been  visited  by  some  special  manifes- 
tation of  the  power  and  the  presence  of  God. 

THE  PRINCE  OF  EVANGELISTS. 

Charles  G.  Finney  was  born  in  Litchfield  County,  Conn.,  August 
29,  1792.  IvFeither  of  his  parents  professed  religion.  While  pursu- 
ing his  profession,  the  practice  of  law,  he  was  brought  under  cgnvic- 
tion  by  the  preaching  of  Rev.  George  W.  Gale,  of  Adams,  N.  Y. 
One  Sunday  evening  in  the  autumn  of  1821  he  determined  that  he 
would  be  a  Christian,  but  he  could  not  bring  himself  to  the  point  of 
public  confession.  During  Monday  and  Tuesday  his  conviction  deep- 
ened ;  early  Wednesday  morning,  leaving  his  office,  he  passed  a  piece 


66  CHKISTENDOM. 

of  woods,  just  over  the  hill  from  the  town,  and  throwing  himself  upon 
his  knees  and  then  upon  his  face,  God  met  and  gave  him  peace  and 
joy.  In  1825  he  started  out  upon  his  wonderful  career  in  evan- 
gelism, and  his  power  and  success  easily  made  him  the  Prince  of 
Evangelists.  In  western  New  York  the  most  remarkable  evidences 
of  the  presence  of  God  accompanied  his  preaching.  Mr.  Finney 
would  spend  days  without  eating  and  nights  without  sleeping,  and 
as  he  would  begin  to  j^reach  the  power  of  God  would  fall  upon  the 
people  so  that  frequently  he  would  be  obliged  to  stop  his  address  in 
order  to  give  them  an  opportunity  to  find  peace.  In  1831  there 
was  a  special  work  of  grace  in  the  city  of  New  York;  thousands  of 
Christians  assembled  for  prayer,  conversions  occurred  in  all  parts 
of  the  city,  the  churches  were  crowded  to  overflowing.  An  old  thea- 
tre on  Chatham  Street  was  purchased,  and  here  Mr.  Finney  began 
to  preach,  taking  as  his  first  text:  "Who  is  on  the  Lord's  side?" 
For  seventy  successive  nights  he  preached  to  immense  crowds.  The 
bar-room  was  changed  into  a  prayer-room,  and  the  first  man  who 
knelt  there  poured  out  his  heart  in  these  words :  "Oh,  Lord,  forgive 
my  sins.  The  last  time  I  was  here  I  was  a  wicked  actor  on  this 
stage.  Oh,  Lord,  have  mercy  upon  me !"  For  three  years  this 
building  continued  to  be  used  for  revival  meetings. 

The  period  commencing  with  the  year  1792  and  terminating  with 
1842,  was  a  memorable  period  in  the  history  of  the  American  church. 
Scarcely  any  portion  of  it  but  was  graciously  visited  by  the  outpour- 
ing of  the  Spirit.  It  has  been  estimated  that  from  1815  to  1840 
the  Spirit  was  poured  out  upon  from  four  to  five  hundred  churches 
and  congregations  annually,  and  from  forty  to  fifty  thousand  were 
added  by  profession  in  a  single  year. 

THE  REVIVAL  OF  1857. 

It  is  an  interesting  fact  in  revivals,  that  they  frequently  succeed 
some  great  calamity,  a  prevailing  epidemic,  a  general  financial  em- 
barrassment or  something  of  the  sort.  It  was  so  with  the  wonder- 
ful work  of  grace  which  began  in  1857;  men  seemed  crazed  with  the 
desire  for  gold,  speculation  was  at  fever  heat,  and  as  a  natural  re- 
sult there  were  failures  everywhere.  In  a  twinkling  of  an  eye  mil- 
lionaires became  bankrupts.  In  such  a  mood  they  were  ready  to 
listen  to  the  voice  of  God.  A  little  room  in  the  lower  part  of  New 
York  belonging  to  the  Reformed  Dutch  Church,  Fulton  Street,  was 


KP]VIVALS.  67 

thrown  open  for  a  public  noon-day  prayer  meeting.  The  City  Mis- 
sionary, Mr.  Lanphier,  who  made  the  appointment,  first  met  there 
with  three  persons,  then  six,  then  twenty,  and  thus  the  business 
men's  prayer  meeting  began  to  attract  attention.  A  call  was  made 
for  a  daily  meeting,  and  very  soon  three  crowded  meetings  for  prayer 
were  held.  Such  meetings  sprang  up  in  other  parts  of  the  city  also ; 
the  example  spread  to  Philadelphia,  to  Boston,  and  to  other  cities, 
until  there  was  scarcely  a  town  of  importance  in  the  United  States 
in  which  the  business  men's  prayer  meeting  was  not  a  flourishing 
institution,  and  the  leading  agency  in  awakening  public  interest  in 
religion.  One  day  there  came  into  the  New  York  meeting  a  gen- 
tleman from  Philadelphia  who  read  with  thrilling  effect  a  hymn,  one 
verse  of  which  is  here  given : 

"Where'er  we  meet,  you  always  say 

What's  the  news?    What's  the  news? 
Pray  what's  the  order  of  the  day?  ' 

What's  the  news?     What's  the  news? 
Oh !  I  have  got  good  news  to  tell ; 

My  Saviour  hath  done  all  things  well, 
And  triumphed  over  death  and  hell. 

That's  the  news.     That's  the  news  !" 

The  telegraph  wires  frequently  carried  messages  between  Phila- 
delphia and  New  York  concerning  the  progress  of  this  work  of  grace. 

ENGLAND  AND  ELSEWHERE. 

Abroad  the  work  was  also  extensive  and  powerful.  The  services 
in  Exeter  Hall,  and  the  opening  of  Westminster  Abbey,  together 
with  other  prominent  places  of  worship,  meant  the  leading  of  thou- 
sands of  souls  to  Christ.  In  England  and  in  Wales  it  is  estimated 
that  the  number  of  conversions  in  the  various  orthodox  denomina- 
tions was  from  thirty  to  thirty-five  thousand.  In  Ireland,  too,  the 
work  was  remarkable.  It  has  been  said  that  in  Belfast,  then  a  city 
of  30,000  souls,  there  were  10,000  conversions.  America,  however, 
was  the  most  favored  in  this  gracious  visitation,  and  such  a  time  as 
that  which  was  ushered  in  with  1857  was  never  known  since  the  days 
of  the  Apostles.  The  results,  of  course,  cannot  be  recorded  certain- 
ly, nor  the  number  of  conversions.  In  Now  York  State  200  towns 
were  reported  as  having  revivals ;  in  New  York  City  all  the  cliurches 
were  largely  increased  in  membership.     It  was  estimated  that  there 


68  CHRISTENDOM. 

were   10,000  conversions  in  the  city  of  New  York  alone  in  that 
year. 

DWIGHT  L.  MOODY. 

This  revival  of  1857  was  a  layman's  revival.  God  singles  out 
from  among  the  men  of  the  church  those  who  are  to  accomplish  His 
will;  such  men  as  Mr.  George  H.  Stewart,  of  Philadelphia,  and  Mr. 
Dwight  L.  Moody.  Mr.  Moody's  work  may  be  roughly  divided  into 
three  periods;  the  first,  growing  out  of  the  revival  of  1857  and  1858, 
was  largely  carried  on  under  the  inspiration  and  direction  of  the 
Young  Men's  Christian  Association.  The  second  period,  Mr.  Moody 
wrought  only  at  the  united  request  of  the  churches  and  pastors,  with 
their  organized  co-operation.  The  third  period  of  his  work  was 
largely  educational.  It  was  while  he  was  in  the  midst  of  this  that 
God  called  him  home. 

Dwight  L.  Moody  was  born  in  Northfield,  February  5,  1837.  He 
was  converted  in  Boston,  and  afterward  removed  to  Chicago  in  1856. 
His  Sunday-school  work  in  that  city  was  phenomenal.  The  great 
revival  of  '57  and  '58  led  to  the  formation  of  the  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association  of  Chicago.  About  this  time  Mr.  Moody  be- 
gan attending  the  meetings,  and  by  his  personal  efforts  induced  more 
than  one  hundred  persons  to  join  the  praying  band,  and  it  was  then 
that  he  decided  to  give  up  all  his  time  to  God's  work.  His  first 
evangelistic  work  was  really  done  in  Chicago. 

It  was  in  connection  with  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association 
work  that  Mr.  Moody  became  acquainted  with  Mr.  Sankey,  who  was 
to  occupy  so  prominent  a  part  with  him  in  subsequent  revival  work. 
A  sentence  dropped  by  Mr.  Varley,  a  British  evangelist,  to  the  effect 
"that  it  remains  for  the  world  to  see  what  the  Lord  can  do  with  a 
man  wholly  consecrated  to  Christ,"  was  used  of  God  to  arouse  Mr. 
Moody ;  he  could  not  get  away  from  the  thought  throughout  his  en- 
tire career;  it  largely  helped  to  shape  his  life  and  work.  In  1873 
Moody  and  Sankey  went  to  Liverpool.  Their  reception  was  not 
cheering,  and  their  work  was  not  in  any  way  remarkable.  In  No- 
vember of  that  year  they  arrived  in  Edinburgh ;  here  was  the  begin- 
ning of  the  great  meetings.  Thousands  of  people  attended  their 
ministry,  and  all  classes  were  reached  with  the  Gospel.  Their  great 
success  in  Scotland  opened  the  way  for  them  in  Ireland,  and  in 
1874  the  work  was  inaugurated  in  Belfast.  As  the  meetings  pro- 
ceeded the  interest  became  more  and  more  apparent;  thousands  of 


EEVIVALS.  69 

people  were  led  to  Christ.  For  ten  weeks  the  evangelist  labored  in 
Ireland ;  wherever  one  went  the  topic  of  conversation  was  the  revival 
services.  Think  of  a  man  coming  a  hundred  miles  with  his  son 
fourteen  years  old,  that  he  might  come  under  the  influence  of  the 
preaching.  In  1874  they  returned  for  work  in  the  larger  cities  of 
England.  After  an  address  by  Mr.  Moody  in  Oxford  Hall,  to  young 
men,  along  the  line  of  Christian  service,  a  campaign  was  planned, 
the  results  of  which  were  most  wholesome  and  encouraging.  Serv- 
ices were  conducted  in  Manchester,  Sheffield,  Birmingham,  and  then 
a  second  visit,  on  February  7,  1875,  was  made  to  Liverpool.  Thou- 
sands of  people  were  unable  to  hear  the  evangelist  because  of  the 
crowds ;  the  tide  of  enthusiasm  rising  with  every  added  hour  of  their 
visit.  On  March  5,  1875,  the  work  was  inaugurated  in  London.  A 
gathering  of  1,500  ministers  of  all  denominations  had  been  called 
to  confer  and  make  and  adopt  plans.  At  the  close  of  the  first 
month's  work  in  London  it  was  said  that  the  success  of  the  meetings 
was  marvelous,  and  in  its  way  quite  unexampled  within  the  memory 
of  living  men,  or  in  all  that  has  been  recorded  by  the  pen  of  the 
English  historian  of  the  Christian  Church. 

On  his  return  from  Great  Britain,  Mr.  Moody  went  to  Northfield, 
there  to  spend  some  little  time  resting  at  his  old  home.  The  Gospel 
Campaign  in  America  began  at  Brooklyn,  on  Sunday,  October  24, 
1875.  The  skating  rink  on  Clermont  x\ venue,  with  its  seating  capa- 
city of  6,000,  was  secured  for  the  services.  The  very  first  meeting 
brought  together  enormous  crowds;  the  rink  was  filled.  Overflow 
meetings  were  held ;  still,  there  was  no  falling  off  in  the  crowds,  who 
could  not  find  even  standing  room.  At  least  15,000  people  attended 
the  services  each  day.  The  effect  of  the  Brooklyn  meetings  was  an 
awakening  rather  than  the  conversion  of  non-churchgoers.  The 
meetings  closed  November  19th. 

From  Brooklyn  Moody  and  Sankey  went  to  Philadelphia,  and  be- 
gan their  meetings  in  the  old  Pennsylvania  Railroad  Depot,  at  Thir- 
teenth and  Market  streets,  now  occupied  by  the  great  store  of  John 
Wanamaker.  About  $40,000  was  spent  in  the  reconstruction  and 
equipment  of  the  building;  chairs  for  10,000  people  were  secured. 
The  regular  meetings  ended  January  10th,  with  thousands  of  peo- 
ple converted  and  the  whole  city  stirred  as  it  had  never  been  before 
nor  since.  The  meetings  in  Philadelphia  established  Mr.  Moody's 
leadership  of  the  Lord's  active  army  in  the  United  States. 

Following  the  Philadelphia  meetings  the  great  campaign  in  New 


70  CHRISTENDOM. 

York  was  entered  upon.  The  meetings  in  the  Hippodrome  began 
February  7,  1876.  At  the  first  meeting  7,000  were  present  in  the 
main  hall,  and  4,000  others  attended  the  overflow  meeting;  while 
several  thousand  were  left  in  the  streets.  The  service  was  fittingly 
opened  with  silent  prayer;  what  that  moment  inaugurated  for  New 
York  can  never  be  estimated,  both  in  time  and  extent,  and  in  the 
results  accomplished.  The  campaign  in  the  New  York  Hippodrome 
was  perhaps  the  most  important  ever  conducted  by  Mr.  Moody.  In 
moving  New  York  God  moved  the  country,  and  the  voice  of  the 
evangelist  was  heard  throughout  the  entire  land. 

The  great  meetings  in  Chicago  were  held  in  October,  1876.  The 
Boston  meetings  began  the  last  of  January,  1877,  and  both  of  these 
engagements,  like  those  in  other  cities,  were  a  wonderful  demonstra- 
tion of  God's  power.  From  this  time  Mr.  Moody's  activity  seldom 
ceased,  one  tour  was  followed  by  another,  and  hardly  a  city  or  town 
of  any  great  importance  in  this  country  failed  to  receive  through  his 
help  a  revival  of  interest  in  spiritual  affairs.  The  meetings  in  Balti- 
more, in  1878,  were  marked  by  notable  results;  they  began  in  Octo- 
ber, 1878,  and  continued  until  May  16,  1879.  It  is  not  possible 
to  speak  of  the  work  in  other  cities  and  towns,  but  everywhere  Mr. 
Moody's  name  has  been  an  inspiration  and  his  life  a  benediction. 

No  one  can  study  the  history  of  revivals  and  not  be  impressed 
with  their  mighty  influence  upon  the  destiny  of  the  race. 

First.  Society  at  large  has  been  uplifted  by  revivals.  When  Di- 
vine grace  is  abundantly  poured  out  it  is  felt  at  the  very  springs  of 
society,  and  there  cannot  but  be  a  corresponding  elevation;  the  foun- 
dations of  life  are  purified,  and  a  social  and  civil  renovation  is  the 
result.  "What  would  our  own  land,  as  well  as  Great  Britain,  have 
been  but  for  the  revival  period  of  the  seventeenth  century  ? 

Second.  Missionary  movements  came  from  revivals;  all  those 
great  benevolent  enterprises  which  are  the  glory  of  this  age  origi- 
nated just  there;  all  the  first  foreign  missionaries — Hall,  Newall, 
Mills,  Judson,  Nott,  Rice,  Bingham,  King  and  Thurston,  and  others 
who  entered  the  field  a  little  later — were  converted  and  received  their 
missionary  ])aptism  in  revivals. 

Third.  An  efficient  ministry  has  come  from  revivals.  ''We  hardly 
dare  to  lift  the  curtain  to  see  what  the  ministry  was  previous  to  some 
of  the  great  historic  revivals,  as  in  the  days  of  Wiclif,  Huss  and 
Luther,  or  when  Whitefield  began  his  career.  The  character  of  the 
English  clergy  of  those  times  is  but  too  well  known.     Of  the  clergy 


REVIVALS.  71 

even  as  late  as  1781,  Cowper  could  write,  without  fear  of  contradic- 
tion: 

"Except  a  few  with  Eli's  spirit  blessed, 
Hophni  and  Phineas  may  describe  the  rest." 

It  must  be  remembered,  too,  that  revivals  mightily  increase  the 
number  of  ministers.  It  has  been  said  by  some  one  that  nine-tenths 
of  the  ministry  were  the  children  of  revivals. 

Fourth.  Institutions  of  learning  owe  much  to  revivals.  Many 
originated  directly  in  revivals.  The  founding  of  Princeton  College 
is  but  one  case  of  many  where  the  beginnings  were  in  revivals. 

Fifth.  Many  of  the  strongest  churches  in  the  world  have  come 
from  revivals.  This  is  suggestion  enough,  and  but  faintly  shows 
what  we  owe  to  revivals  of  religion.  Blot  out  what  God  has  done 
by  revivals,  and  the  sun  would  be  shrouded  in  gloom,  our  churches 
would  be  vacant,  missionary  agencies  would  be  things  unknown,  and 
distress  would  be  on  every  side  of  us.     "Oh,  Lord,  revive  thy  work." 

The  nineteenth  century  has  truly  been  a  marvelous  one.  It  has 
witnessed  among  many  others  the  birth  of  the  following  notable 
great  movements:  The  enlarged  work  of  Foreign  Missions,  the 
Bible  societies  in  all  lands,  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Associations 
everywhere,  the  Young  People's  societies  of  Christian  Endeavor,  the 
Rescue  Missions  in  cities,  the  inauguration  of  Bible  Conferences, 
such  as  Keswick  in  England,  and  Northfield  and  Winona  in  Amer- 
ica. God's  grace  to  His  people  in  days  that  are  past  was  truly  re- 
markable, and  since  He  is  the  same  yesterday,  to-day  and  forever, 
there  is  no  reason  why  the  future  may  not  be  better  than  the  past. 
The  age  of  revivals  then  is  not  yet  past.  No  man  dare  stand  up  and 
assert  that  such  times  of  refreshing  as  those  to  which  reference  has 
been  made,  will  be  not  again  vouchsafed  to  the  Christian  Church. 
The  question  for  the  individual  to  ask  himself  is :  Am  I  right  with 
God  ?  Am  I  in  a  receptive  mood  ?  Am  I  absolutely  consecrated  to 
His  service?  Am  I  myself  ready  to  be  revived  and  willing  to  be 
used  in  any  way  God  may  please  ?  Thus  the  duty  of  the  individual 
man  is  perfectly  simple  and  plain,  viz. :  to  surrender  himself 
unconditionally  to  God  for  spiritual  uses.  When  many  individuals 
in  the  churches  do  this,  a  rich  spiritual  blessing  not  only  will  come, 
but  has  come.  God  will  be  inquired  of,  and  when  He  is  inquired  of 
in  the  spirit  of  entire  submission  and  of  earnest,  importunate  faith. 
He  will  not  say  His  people  nay. 


THE    PHILANTHROPY    OF    CHRISTENDOM 
IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY. 


C.  H.  d'E  Leppington, 

ENGLAND. 

ITo  have  only  a  superficial  acquaintance  with  the  benefits  conferred  by 
Christianity  would  be,  in  fact,  to  know  nothing  of  the  subject.  We  must  con- 
sider the  ingenuity  with  which  it  has  varied  its  gifts,  dispensed  its  succors, 
distributed  its  treasures,  its  remedies  and  its  intelligence.  In  soothing  all 
the  sorrows  of  humanity  it  has  paid  a  due  regard  to  man's  imperfection, 
consulting  with  a  wise  condescension  even  his  delicacy  of  feeling,  his  self-love 
and  his  frailties. 

During  the  few  years  that  we  have  devoted  to  these  researches,  so  many  acts 
of  charity,  so  many  admirable  institutions,  so  many  inconceivable  sacrifices, 
have  passed  in  review  before  us  that  we  firmly  believe  that  this  merit  alone 
of  the  Christian  religion  would  be  sufficient  to  atone  for  all  the  sins  of 
mankind.  Heavenly  religion,  that  compels  us  to  love  those  wretched  beings 
by  whom  it  is  calumniated ! 

In  order  to  form  a  just  idea  of  the  immensity  of  these  benefits,  we  should 
look  upon  Christendom  as  a  vast  republic,  where  all  that  we  relate  concerning 
one  portion  is  passing  at  the  same  time  in  another.  Thus,  when  we  treat  of 
the  hospitals,  the  missions,  the  colleges  of  France,  the  reader  should  also 
picture  to  himself  the  hospitals,  the  missions  and  the  colleges  of  Ital.y,  Spain, 
Germany,  Russia,  England,  America,  Africa  and  Asia.  He  should  take  into 
his  view  four  hundred  millions  of  men  at  least,  among  whom  the  like  virtues 
are  practised,  the  like  sacrifices  are  made.  He  should  recollect  that  for 
nineteen  hundred  years  these  virtues  have  existed  and  the  same  acts  of 
charity  have  been  repeated.  Now  calculate,  if  your  mind  is  not  lost  in  the 
effort,  the  number  of  individuals  cheered  and  enlightened  by  Christianity 
among  so  many  nations  and  during  such  a  long  series  of  ages. — Chateau- 
ueiand;  "The  Genius  of  Christianity,"  pp.  619-20. — Ed.] 


No  PHASE  of  our  modern  civilization  is  more  deeply  indebted 
for  its  inception  to  the  spirit  and  teaching  of  Christianity  than  is 
that  vast  expenditure  of  energy  and  wealth  in  the  service  of  dis- 
tressed humanity  which  is  characteristic  of  the  century  just  closed. 

Not  that  the  altruistic  sentiment  inculcated  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment solely  or  directly  inspires  all  the  charitable  work  of  the  present 
day,  nor  that  that  sentiment  is  not  also  traceable  in  the  doctrines 

72 


^ ^  'i« ■  ^^  ft  -^ii  ••  r  -  ''^i 


tj 


iLU!!ilin  wJoi 


UNITED  CHARITIES    BUiLDIXG.  NEW  YORK. 


PHILANTHROPY.  73 

of  pre-Cliristian  thinkers.  The  humane  character  of  the  tenets  of 
Buddhism  has  caused  that  religion,  more  frequently  perhaps  than 
any  other,  to  be  compared  with  Christianity.  Cicero,  in  De  ofJiciiSf 
expatiates  on  the  virtue  of  benevolence.  Seneca  and  some  others  of 
the  later  Stoics  likewise  reckon  the  rendering  of  services  to  others  as 
among  the  virtues  to  be  cultivated  by  the  good  man.  Not  only  so, 
but  classic  civilization  was  not  entirely  devoid  of  a  practical  applica- 
tion of  such  tenets.  The  enactment  of  the  frumentarice  leges  and 
the  alimcntarii  of  the  latter  republic  and  the  early  emperors,  which 
decreed  the  periodical  distribution  of  corn  and  oil,  either  gratis  or  at 
prices  below  the  market  rate,  to  needy  citizens,  not  only  of  Rome 
but  of  some  of  the  leading  provincial  cities  also,  may  indeed  be  at- 
tributed chiefly  to  considerations  of  political  expediency,  but  isolated 
acts  of  liberality  among  the  Greeks,  as  well  as  among  the  Romans, 
are  mentioned  by  Plutarch  and  some  other  pagan  writers,  which 
would  seem  to  be  hardly  open  to  this  charge. 

Tacitus,  describing  the  widespread  misery  and  loss  of  life  occa- 
sioned in  the  city  of  Fidence  by  the  giving  way  of  a  "jerry-built" 
amphitheatre,  adds :  "However,  immediately  upon  this  destructive 
calamity,  the  doors  of  the  great  were  thrown  open;  medicines  and 
physicians  were  furnished  to  all;  and  at  that  Juncture  the  city, 
though  under  an  aspect  of  sorrow,  presented  an  image  of  the  public 
spirit  of  the  ancient  Romans,  who,  after  great  battles,  relieved  and 
sustained  the  wounded  by  their  liberality  and  attentions."*  Orphan- 
ages and  funds  for  giving  dowries  to  girls  on  their  marriage  are 
known  to  have  been  established  by  the  younger  Pliny,  and  other 
private  persons,  as  well  as  by  several  of  the  Caesars.  Even  in  the 
remote  and  barbarian  North,  the  claim  of  poverty  seems  to  have  met 
with  some  recognition,  for  the  law  of  Iceland  is  said  to  have  inher- 
ited usages  for  the  prevention  of  destitution,  in  vogue  in  Scandinavia 
before  the  introduction  of  Christianity,  and  in  some  respects,  per- 
haps, superior  to  those  of  the  rest  of  Europe  during  the  Middle 
Ages. 

While  we  may  not,  then,  refuse  to  paganism  the  credit  due  to  it 
for  acts  of  beneficence  such  as  these,  a  sharp  contrast  is  to  be  found 
between  its  achievements  in  this  respect  and  those  of  primitive  Chris- 
tianity. As  the  author  of  "Ecce  Homo"  has  observed:  "Though 
there  was  humanity  among  the  ancients,  there  was  no  philanthropy. 
.     .     .     Exceptional  sufferings  had  therefore  a  chance  of  relief,  but 

*  "The  Annals,"  Book  TV,  c.  03,  Oxford  Translation. 


74  CHRISTENDOM. 

the  ordinary  sufferings,  which  affected  whole  classes  of  men,  excited 
no  pity,  and  were  treated  as  part  of  the  natural  order  of  things; 
providential  dispensations,  which  it  might  even  be  impious  to  coun- 
teract." In  the  words  of  the  historian,  Lecky:  "There  can,  how- 
ever, be  no  question  that  neither  in  practice  nor  in  theory,  neither 
in  the  institutions  that  were  founded  nor  in  the  place  that  was  as- 
signed to  it  in  the  scale  of  duties,  did  charity  in  antiquity  occupy 
a  position  at  all  comparable  to  that  which  it  has  obtained  by  Chris- 
tianity. Nearly  all  relief  was  a  state  measure,  dictated  much  more 
by  policy  than  by  benevolence."  * 

Already,  before  the  era  of  persecution  had  closed,  the  colonies  of 
Christians  scattered  over  the  vast  area  of  the  Eoman  Empire  were 
knit  together  in  a  bond  of  mutual  aid,  administered  by  the  deacons, 
under  the  direction  of  the  bishops.  When  at  length  Constantine's 
accession  put  an  end  to  the  time  of  trial,  they  were  ready  to  extend 
their  charity  to  their  pagan  fellow  citizens,  until  the  Emperor  Julian 
had  bitterly  to  complain  that  the  Galileans  supported  not  only  their 
own  but  the  heathen  poor  as  well.  There  is  a  general,  if  not  unan- 
imous, consensus  of  opinion  that  public  hospitals  were  unknown 
until  they  were  established  by  the  Christians.  It  appears  to  be  a 
question  in  dispute  whether  Fabiola,  a  Roman  lady  of  the  fourth 
century,  or  St.  Basil  the  Great,  at  a  somewhat  later  date,  is  entitled 
to  be  regarded  as  the  founder  of  the  first  of  these  institutions.  At 
all  events,  what  are  known  as  the  Arabic  Canons  of  the  Council  of 
Nicgea  enjoined  that  Xenodochia,  or  refuges  for  the  sick  and  needy, 
and  for  strangers,  should  be  erected  in  every  city. 

On  the  whole  it  may  be  confidently  affirmed  that  the  benevolence 
of  the  primitive  church  far  exceeded  that  of  even  the  noblest  pagans, 
not  only  in  extent  but  also  in  intensity,  since  its  members  alone  were 
ever  ready  in  times  of  pestilence — at  Carthage  and  Alexandria,  for 
example — to  tend  the  sick  and  to  give  decent  burial  to  the  dead.  If, 
reverting  for  the  moment  to  the  modern  world,  we  compare  the  char- 
ity of  Islamism  with  that  of  our  own  faith,  the  same  phenomenon 
is  again  traceable.  The  Koran  does  indeed  impress  on  its  followers 
their  obligation  "to  show  kindness  unto  .  .  .  orphans  and  the 
poor,"  and  "not  to  oppress  the  orphan,  nor  to  repulse  the  beggar" ; 
and  among  the  objects  of  the  Wakoufs,  or  ecclesiastical  endowments, 
found  in  Mohammedan  countries,  arc  enumerated  Imarets,  or  places 
for  the  distribution  of  food,  almshouses,  and  lunatic  asylums.     Yet 

•"History  of  European  Morals,"  Vol.  II.  p.  78.     (4th  Edition.) 


PHILANTHKOPY.  75 

in  the  Constantinople  of  to-day,  where  Mussulman  and  Christian 
dwell  side  by  side,  as  heathen  and  Christian  lived  in  ancient  Eome 
and  Alexandria,  all  the  Mussulman  charitable  institutions  which 
Mr.  Jerningham,  of  the  British  Embassy,  could  find  to  enumerate, 
in  reply  to  an  inquiry  on  the  subject  made  some  years  since  by  his 
Government,  were  one  Imaret  and  one  lunatic  asylum.  "The  prin- 
cipal effect,"  he  sums  up,  "of  the  actual  system  of  relief  carried  on 
in  Turkey  upon  the  comfort,  character,  and  condition  of  the  Mus- 
sulman inhabitants  is  to  disturb  the  one,  sour  the  other,  and  im- 
poverish the  third."  The  Greeks,  on  the  contrary,  he  tells  us,  have 
a  hospital,  a  hospice  for  aged  men,  an  orphanage,  and  a  lunatic  asy- 
lum. Each  of  their  congregations  has  a  committee  for  seeing  to 
the  relief  of  its  own  poor. 

Thus,  when  the  test  of  positive  experience  is  applied,  we  find  that 
long  centuries  of  Christian  example  and  training  have  evolved  in 
the  keen  and  active  Aryan  intellect  an  ideal  of  practical  beneficence 
which,  at  the  present  moment,  exerts  a  marked  influence  upon  the 
whole  thought  and  life  of  Western  civilization,  reaching  by  reper- 
cussion far  beyond  the  boundaries  of  the  avowedly  religious  world. 
To  quote  onc-e  again  the  gifted  author  of  "Ecce  Homo" :  "We  are 
advanced  by  eighteen  hundred  years  beyond  the  apostolic  generation. 
.  .  .  Christ  commanded  His  first  followers  to  heal  the  sick  and 
give  alms,  but  he  commands  the  Christians  of  this  age,  if  we  may  use 
the  expression,  to  investigate  the  causes  of  all  physical  evil,  to  mas- 
ter the  science  of  health,  to  consider  the  question  of  education  with 
a  view  to  health,  the  question  of  labor  with  a  view  to  health,  the 
question  of  trade  with  a  view  to  health ;  and  while  all  these  investi- 
gations are  made,  with  free  expenditure  of  energy  and  time  and 
means,  to  work  out  the  rearrangement  of  human  life  in  accordance 
with  the  results  they  give.  Thus  ought  the  enthusiasm  of  humanity 
to  work  in  these  days,  and  thus,  plainly  enough,  it  does  work.  .  .  . 
But  perhaps  it  is  rather  among  those  who  are  influenced  by  general 
philanthropy  and  generosity — ^that  is,  by  indirect  or  secondary 
Christianity — than  among  those  who  profess  to  draw  the  enthusiasm 
directly  from  its  fount,  that  this  spirit  reigns." 

Christianity,  it  has  been  said,  inculcated,  perhaps,  no  more  effec- 
tively than  the  older  religions,  the  economic  virtues  of  industry, 
thrift  and  courage,  but  it  produced  a  more  elevated  way  of  viewing 
the  different  social  relations,  preaching  with  quite  a  new  emphasis 
the  claims  of  the  poor.     In  the  words  of  the  late  Professor  Amos 


76  CHEISTENDOM. 

G.  Warner :  "Charity,  as  we  know  it,  gets  its  chief  religious  author- 
ity and  incentive  from  Him  who  gave  as  the  summary  of  all  the  law 
and  the  prophets  the  co-ordinate  commands  to  love  God  and  to  love 
our  neighbor;  and  who,  in  explaining  these  commands,  pronounced 
the  parable  of  the  Good  Samaritan."  To  put  it  briefly,  Christian- 
ity has  shown  itself  more  dynamic  as  an  incentive  to  philanthropy 
than  other  creeds.  Where  it  has  superseded  them — those  even  which 
have  accentuated  the  duty  of  alms-giving — its  effect  has  been  analo- 
gous, if  a  simile  drawn  from  mechanical  science  may  be  permitted 
in  such  a  connection,  to  the  substitution  of  anthracite  for  brown 
coal,  or  lignite,  in  the  furnaces  of  an  ocean  steamer. 

To  the  influence  of  Christianity  as  a  moral  doctrine  was  added 
that  of  the  church  as  an  organization  charged  with  the  application 
of  that  doctrine  to  men's  daily  transactions.  The  canonists  styled 
the  relief  of  the  necessities  of  the  poor  a  "debitum  legale."  The 
Council  of  Tours,  in  597,  recommended  that  "every  city  should  sup- 
port its  own  poor  and  needy."  Indeed,  the  obligation  to  relieve  the 
destitute,  at  the  present  day,  to  a  greater  or  less  extent,  is  admitted 
by  the  leading  nations  of  Christendom  as  a  collective  duty  of  the 
community;  was  recognized  as  incumbent  upon  the  church,  and  es- 
pecially on  the  clergy,  by  one  of  Charlemagne's  capitularies.  As 
quoted  by  Egbert,  Archbishop  of  York  in  the  ninth  century,  it  was 
to  the  following  effect : 

"The  priests  are  to  take  the  tithes  .  ,  .  and  divide  them  in 
the  presence  of  them  that  fear  God.  The  first  part  they  are  to  take 
for  the  adorning  of  the  church,  but  the  second  they  are  in  all  hu- 
mility to  distribute  with  their  own  hands  for  the  use  of  the  poor 
and  strangers."  The  remainder  the  priests  might  keep  for  them- 
selves. 

As  the  church  in  England  had  already  been  organized  by  Theo- 
dore of  Tarsus,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  in  the  seventh  century, 
upon  the  parochial  principle,  we  have  here  the  rudiments  of  a  sys- 
tem of  parish  relief  for  the  poor.  In  the  later  Middle  Ages,  a  kind 
of  fund  appears  to  have  been  instituted  in  some  parishes  known  as 
the  "church  stock,"  or  "church  store,"  the  principal  of  which  was 
lent  out  and  the  interest  derived  from  it  applied  to  assisting  the 
more  needy  parishioners.  The  disendowment  of  the  monasteries, 
under  Henry  the  Eighth,  and  the  consequent  cessation  of  the  alms 
they  dispensed,  hastened  on  a  remodelling  of  public  beneficence  in 
England,  which  Professor  Ashley  and  some  other  authorities  have 


PHILANTHROPY.  77 

argued  would  in  any  case  have  been  eventually  necessitated  by  the 
agrarian  and  other  social  and  economic  changes  in  progress  during 
the  sixteenth  century.  At  all  events,  a  number  of  laws  on  this  sub- 
ject were  passed  during  that  period,  culminating  in  an  enactment 
by  Queen  Elizabeth's  last  parliament,  which  made  it  the  duty  of  the 
church  wardens  and  overseers  in  each  parish  to  provide  material 
for  "setting  the  poor  on  work,"  those,  namely,  'Tiaving  no  means  to 
maintain  them,  and  that  use  no  ordinary  and  daily  trade  of  life  to 
get  their  living  by;  .  .  .  and  also  competent  sums  of  money 
for  and  toward  the  necessary  relief  of  the  lame,  impotent,  old,  blind, 
and  such  others  among  them  being  poor  and  not  able  to  work." 

The  above  short  summary  has  been  thought  necessary  in  order  to 
trace  the  connection  between  the  charities  of  the  early  church  and 
those  of  the  state  in  later  times.  On  this  account,  as  well  as  for 
reasons  suggested  above,  it  seems  desirable  to  include  in  the  present 
survey  some  reference  to  those  agencis  which,  although  secular  in 
their  origin,  would  yet  in  all  probability  never  have  been  called  into 
existence  in  a  pagan  community,  and  not  to  confine  ourselves  to 
considering  those  forms  of  philanthropy  alone  which  have  been  in- 
spired by  motives  of  a  directly  religious  character. 

Moreover,  the  statute  of  Elizabeth,  just  now  cited,  lies  at  the  root 
of  American,  as  well  as  of  British,  systems  of  public  relief.  It  had 
been  in  force  nearly  thirty  years  when  the  Massachusetts  Bay  Com- 
pany was  formed,  and  immigration  under  John  Winthrop  and  others 
set  in  in  earnest  on  the  coasts  of  New  England.  When  the  growth 
of  population  in  the  new  country  compelled  its  citizens  to  take 
order  for  assisting  their  poorer  brethren,  they  retained  the  machin- 
ery already  in  operation  in  England  when  they  embarked. 

In  both  countries,  however,  the  present  system  of  legaL  relief  has 
departed  widely  from  the  Elizabethan  model,  though  in  different 
directions.  Indeed,  there  are  wide  variations  of  method  even  be- 
tween the  several  States  of  the  Union  themselves.  In  those  of 
New  England  the  centre  of  administration  is  the  town,  but  in  those 
of  the  interior  and  the  West  it  is  the  county.  In  the  former,  and 
also  in  Pennsylvania  and  Virginia,  the  law  fences  in  the  right  of 
settlement — that  is,  the  claim  to  legal  relief — with  various  qualifica- 
tions, as,  for  example,  length  of  residence,  or  the  exercise  of  a  trade, 
to  a  far  greater  extent  than  applies  in  the  latter.  Destitute  per- 
sons without  a  settlement  become  chargeable  to  the  state  instead 


78  CHRISTENDOM. 

of  to  the  locality.  The  forms  of  relief  most  generally  met  with  are, 
admission  to  an  almshouse,  or  poor-house,  as  it  is  called  in  some 
places,  of  which  there  is  one  in  every  town  or  county ;  and  relief  in 
money  or  in  kind,  distributed  to  the  dependent  classes  in  their  own 
homes.  As  a  set-off  to  the  maintenance  they  receive  from  the  com- 
munity, the  labor  of  dependents  is  farmed  out  in  several  states. 
In  a  few  cases,  in  some  of  the  counties  of  Oregon,  for  instance,  their 
maintenance  itself  is  also  contracted  for  by  private  individuals. 
Further  still,  vast  sums  of  public  money  (money,  that  is  to  say, 
raised  by  taxation)  are  also  expended  by  state  and  city  authorities 
in  grants-in-aid  of  hospitals,  orphanages,  and  other  charitable  insti- 
tutions under  private  management,  as  well  as  in  payments  toward 
the  support  of  state  and  city  dependents  who  are  accommodated  in 
such  institutions.  During  the  year  1899  the  United  States  contrib- 
uted to  charity  and  education  the  sum  of  $80,000,000.  This  is  the 
high-water  mark  of  benevolence  reached  in  that  country.  Accord- 
ing to  Professor  Amos  G.  Warner,  the  public  expenditure  on  medi- 
cal charities  in  ten  American  cities  was  $1,034,000.  The  amount 
spent  under  the  former  head  by  the  city  of  New  York  alone,  in  1890, 
was  $1,845,872.  Of  the  twenty-seven  cities  of  the  Union  having 
in  that  year  a  population  of  one  hundred  thousand  and  upward, 
twenty-two  gave  out  relief  totaling  $952,500.  Boston  is  one  of 
these.  Between  six  and  eight  per  cent,  of  her  population  receive 
grants  of  about  twenty  dollars  each  in  the  course  of  the  year.  In 
most  of  the  states  the  placing  of  children  in  private  families  fonns 
a  very  important  part  of  the  assistance  rendered  to  indigent  families. 
No  general  estimate  of  the  number  of  dependents  chargeable  to  the 
public  funds  for  the  whole  of  the  United  States  is  possible,  because 
several  of  the  states  issue  no  complete  returns.  The  census  of 
1890,  however,  records  the  population  of  the  almshouses  throughout 
the  states  as  73,045.  The  poor-houses  of  seventeen  states,  having 
a  total  population  in  1890  of  33,500,187  souls,  contained  68,110  in- 
mates in  1898. 

Nineteen  states  possess  Boards  of  Charities,  whose  duty  it  is  to 
inspect,  and  in  some  instances  to  control  (for  they  are  not  all  en- 
trusted with  equally  high  powers),  both  the  institutions  owned  by  the 
state  itself,  and  also  those  under  independent  management  to  which 
it  entrusts  the  care  of  its  dependent  poor.  The  State  Board  of  New 
York  is  one  of  the  ablest  and  most  energetic  of  these  bodies.  It  has 
under  its  supervision  sixty-four  almshouses  belonging  to  counties, 


PHILANTHROPY.  79 

cities  or  towns,  twelve  institutions  belonging  to  the  State  of  New 
York  itself,  eight  institutions  for  the  deaf,  one  for  the  blind,  and 
one  for  juveniles,  all  mainly  supported  from  the  public  funds ;  and, 
in  addition,  upward  of  a  thousand  hospitals,  dispensaries,  orphan 
asylums,  day-nurseries,  relief  agencies,  and  other  institutions,  hav- 
ing in  all  a  population  of  71,013  persons  on  October  1,  1898, 
maintained  at  an  outlay  of  twenty  million  dollars  a  year. 
The  State  Board  is  assisted  in  its  duties  by  a  voluntary  and 
unpaid  body  entitled  the  State  Charities  Aid  Association,  whose 
members  are  authorized  to  visit  the  above-mentioned  establish- 
ments, and  who  report  upon  them  to  the  State  Board  at  frequent 
intervals. 

It  is  claimed  that  the  joint  influence  of  these  two  bodies  has 
raised  the  standard  of  treatment  in  every  poor-house  throughout  the 
state ;  has  entirely  eradicated  the  ancient  custom,  still  adhered  to  in 
a  few  states,  of  farming  out  the  care  of  the  poor  to  the  lowest  bidder, 
and  has  led  to  the  separation  of  the  insane  from  other  paupers,  be- 
sides rectifying  many  other  abuses  which  would  otherwise  have  con- 
tinued unreformed.  Surely  such  results  constitute  a  remarkable 
testimony  to  the  self-denying  energy  on  behalf  of  others'  welfare  of 
which  humanity  of  the  higher  type  is  capable. 

Turning  now  to  national  provision  for  the  poor  in  foreign  coun- 
tries, we  find  that  in  England  a  uniform  system  of  administration 
prevails,  carried  out  by  public  bodies  entitled  Boards  of  Guardians 
of  the  Poor,  elected  ad  hoc  by  the  inhabitants  of  every  parish  (or 
group  of  parishes  termed  a  poor-law  union)  in  the  kingdom.  Each 
board  has  a  work-house  (answering  to  the  American  poor-house)  and 
enjoys  unfettered  discretion  in  admitting  applicants  for  relief.  But 
relief  can  be  dispensed  in  the  applicants'  own  homes  only  under  the 
conditions  set  forth  in  various  statutes  of  the  legislature,  tmd  it  is 
one  of  the  functions  of  the  Local  Government  Board,  a  department 
of  the  central  government  located  in  London,  to  see  that  these  con- 
ditions are  complied  with,  as  well  as  to  supervise  the  establishments 
belonging  to  the  Guardians,  which  frequently  include  infirmaries 
and  schools,  as  well  as  work-houses,  and  to  correct  abuses.  A  staff 
of  inspectors  is  maintained  for  this  purpose,  and  the  accounts  of  the 
Guardians  have  also  to  be  audited  and  sanctioned  by  the  officials  of 
the  Local  Government  Board.  The  total  annual  cost  of  public  poor 
relief,  including  the  maintenance  of  establishments,  is  about  fifty 
million  dollars,  or  $1.62  per  head  of  the  population,  and  the  pro- 


80  CHRISTENDOM. 

portion  of  the  population  at  a  given  time  in  receipt  of  such  relief  is 
about  2.7  per  cent. 

Similarity  in  point  of  social,  geographical,  and  industrial  status 
causes  the  systems  of  relief  in  operation  among  the  several  Junior 
nations  comprised  in  the  British  Empire  to  develop  along  much  the 
same  lines  as  in  the  United  States.  In  the  boldness  of  some  of  their 
ideals  one  or  two  of  them  may,  perhaps,  be  said  to  be  somewhat  in 
advance  of  the  latter  country ;  just  as  in  the  practical  realization  of 
those  ideals  they  are,  no  doubt,  behind  it.  This  remark  applies 
more  especially  to  Australasia. 

Gennany  also  recognizes  the  principle  of  national  responsibility 
for  the  support  of  her  poorer  citizens.  One  of  the  earliest  enact- 
ments of  the  new-born  empire  expressly  declares  that  every  necessi- 
tous German  subject  has  a  right  to  suitable  and  gratuitous  food, 
shelter  and  clothing  at  the  expense  of  his  place  of  settlement,  to  at- 
tendance in  sickness,  and  to  burial.  The  Gemeinde  (parish  or  com- 
mune) is  the  unit  of  administration.  A  characteristic  of  the  Ger- 
man system  which  distinguishes  it  from  those  of  France,  England 
and  America  is  that  every  citizen  (with  certain  exceptions)  is  liable 
to  be  called  upon  to  assist  in  local  affairs  for  three  years  without 
remuneration  on  these  Gemeinden.  For  making  provision  for  the 
insane,  blind,  and  epileptic  the  Gemeinden  arc  grouped  together 
into  Ortsarmenverbiinde.  What  is  generally  Imown  as  the  Elber- 
feld  system,  according  to  which  a  certain  number  of  cases  of  dis- 
tress are  placed  under  the  care  of  an  honorary  almoner  (styled  Ar- 
menpfleger),  who  combines  the  very  dissimilar  functions  of  the 
American  friendly  visitor  and  the  English  relieving  officer,  operates 
with  modifications  in  many  of  the  cities  of  the  empire.  The  almon- 
ers are  frequently  men  of  very  good  standing  in  the  community. 
Among  them  may  be  found  lawyers,  professional  men,  merchants, 
and  persons  of  private  means,  as  well  as  tradesmen,  and,  here  and 
there,  artizans.  The  employment  of  women  in  the  administration 
of  relief  is  increasing,  but  up  to  the  present  time  they  have  acted 
only  as  lieutenants  of  the  regular  male  almoners.  A  law  enacted 
last  summer  will  place  them  on  a  footing  of  greater  equality  with 
the  opposite  sex.  Relief  is  most  usually  dispensed  to  recipients  in 
their  own  homes,  rarely  in  institutions,  except  in  case  of  sickness 
or  infirmity,  and  the  legislature  has  left  to  the  almoners  a  much 
wider  discretion  in  the  choice  of  modes  of  relief  than  have  the 
Boards  of  Guardians  in  England.     These  unpaid  almoners  number 


PHILAx^JTHKOPY.  81 

nearly  three  thousand  in  Berlin  alone.  All  relief  is  by  way  of  loan, 
so  that  if  a  recipient's  circumstances  improve,  he  may  be  called  upon 
to  reimburse  what  has  been  expended  upon  him  from  the  public 
funds.  As  in  America,  orphans  and  children  of  destitute  parents 
are  placed  out  in  families  in  the  rural  districts.  In  1885,  the  most 
recent  date  for  which  figures  for  the  whole  empire  are  accessible, 
1,592,386  persons  were  recipients  of  public  relief,  the  latter  amount- 
ing to  $21,495,739.  Since  then  the  scheme  of  state-subsidized  pen- 
sions for  illness,  accidents  and  old  age,  which  has  attracted  such 
keen  and  general  interest  among  all  civilized  nations,  has  come  fully 
into  operation.  The  magnitude  of  the  scheme  may  be  judged  from 
the  fact  that,  from  1885  to  1899,  it  has  cost  the  imperial  revenues 
$36,750,000;  and  that,  at  the  end  of  1896,  202,015  pensions  for  old 
age,  and  154,745  pensions  to  disabled  persons,  were  being  paid.  Yet 
inquiry  has  proved  that  these  old-age  pensions  are  in  many  cases 
insufficient  to  render  the  recipients  independent  of  poor  relief. 

Other  nations  which  recognize  the  principle  of  state  responsibility 
for  the  indigent  are  the  Scandinavian  kingdoms  and  Russia.  In 
the  latter  country,  the  responsibility  of  giving  assistance  rests  with 
the  General  Councils  of  the  Provinces,  and  with  the  committees  of 
public  charity  established  at  the  beginning  of  the  century ;  but  there 
is  no  central  control.  A  commission  was  recently  appointed  to  re- 
vise all  laws  relating  to  relief,  but  it  has  been  compelled  to  recog- 
nize the  practical  impossibility  of  collecting  information  from  the 
whole  of  Eussia.  The  expenditure  on  municipal  and  private  chari- 
table institutions  (schools  included)  in  St.  Petersburg,  in  1889,  has 
been  estimated  at  $6,267,750.  Omitting  the  schools,  these  institu- 
tions were  431  in  number.  The  city  of  Moscow  celebrated  the  ac- 
cession of  the  present  Czar  by  establishing  twenty-three  bureaux  de 
bienfaisance  for  the  domiciliary  relief  of  the  poor,  and  obtained 
from  the  Czar  and  Czarina  on  their  marriage  the  grant  of  an  annual 
subvention  of  thirty  thousand  dollars.  More  than  fifteen  hundred 
persons  are  now  enlisted  as  visitors  by  the  council  of  the  bureaux, 
which  are  erecting  orphanages  and  almshouses. 

Although  the  broad  principle  of  national  responsibility  is  not  ex- 
pressly admitted  to  its  full  extent  by  the  laws  of  the  remaining  na- 
tions of  Christendom,  yet  in  some  among  them  a  very  active  part  is 
played  by  the  central  and  local  authorities  in  directing  and  subsidiz- 
ing relief  in  certain  channels.  In  France,  provision  for  the  insane 
and  for  destitute  or  neglected  children,  as  well  as  for  the  sick  poor. 


82  CHRISTENDOM. 

is  made  under  the  supervision  of  the  Ministry  of  the  Interior,  and  of 
the  Administration  de  I'Assistance  Publique.  The  administration 
of  public  relief  of  the  aged  and  infirm,  the  homeless,  and  of  the 
valid  poor  is  entrusted  to  the  communes  (townships)  and  depart- 
ments, and  to  the  bureaux  de  hicnfaisance.  The  latter,  of  which 
there  are  about  sixteen  thousand  (and,  according  to  some  authorities, 
more)  all  over  France,  form  a  kind  of  connecting  link  between  offi- 
cial relief  and  private  benevolence.  They  have  an  official  status,  but 
may  appoint  volunteer  helpers  to  act  as  almoners.  They  distribute 
money,  food,  fuel  and  clothing  among  the  indigent  (of  whom  each 
bureau  keeps  a  register)  in  their  own  homes,  to  the  value,  in  1895, 
of  eight  million  dollars.  About  half  the  revenues  of  the  bureaux  are 
derived  from  ancient  endowments,  many  of  them  dating  from  mon- 
archical times.  The  residue  is  made  up  of  legacies,  receipts  from 
the  tax  on  theatrical  performances,  and  grants  made  by  the  com- 
munes. Since  1893,  a  scheme  has  come  into  operation  and  is  being 
gradually  applied  throughout  the  country,  by  which  the  sick  poor 
may  be  suppHed  with  medical  care  and  medicine  in  their  own  homes. 
The  accommodation  provided  in  institutions  belonging  to  the  com- 
munes and  other  public  bodies,  in  the  year  1889,  was  65,204  beds  in 
hospitals,  60,800  beds  in  hospices  for  the  aged  and  infirm,  and  14,- 
921  beds  for  children  in  hospices.  The  Department  of  Public  As- 
sistance places  many  thousands  of  destitute  and  ill-treated  children 
in  the  families  of  the  peasantry,  and  maintains  a  staff  of  inspectors, 
whose  duty  it  is  to  visit  the  children  from  time  to  time  in  the  homes 
of  their  adopted  parents.  No  less  than  130,000  children  are  under 
the  care  of  the  department.  One  consequence  of  the  wide  discre- 
tion entrusted  to  local  authorities  in  providing  and  organizing  the 
machinery  of  relief  is  that  they  exhibit  all  degrees  of  adequacy  in 
the  provision  made  by  them  for  the  poorer  strata  of  the  population. 
Both  the  state  and  the  local  authorities  subsidize  the  numerous  provi- 
dent associations  established  among  the  working  classes. 

The  Belgian  legislature,  in  1891,  decreed  that  the  communes  must 
provide  medical  treatment  for  their  sick  poor,  adding:  "Public  re- 
lief will  be  furnished  to  paupers  by  the  commune  in  which  they  are 
found."  It  also  ordained  the  provision  of  disciplinary  institutions 
for  tramps  and  beggars.  These  already  exist  in  the  agricultural 
labor  colonies  at  Merxplas  and  Hoogstraeten.  The  Dutch  law  de- 
clares that — "The  relief  of  the  poor  is  left  to  the  charitable  institu- 
iions  of  the  different  churches,  or  to  private  institutions.     No  muni- 


PHILANTHROPY.  83 

eipality  is  authorized  to  give  relief  to  the  poor  until  satisfied  that 
they  cannot  be  relieved  by  the  charitable  institutions  of  the  different 
churches,  or  by  those  under  private  management,  and  then  only  in 
case  of  absolute  impossibility."  The  law  of  Holland  appears  to  be 
the  harshest  of  all  in  its  attitude  toward  the  poor.  Nevertheless,  the 
municipalities  of  Amsterdam  and  some  other  towns  expend  con- 
siderable sums  in  relief,  and  that  of  Amsterdam  maintains  a  poor- 
house  and  other  establishments  of  a  similar  character.  Holland, 
like  Belgium,  has  labor  colonies  for  tramps  and  beggars,  which  are 
supported  by  the  state.  A  reform  of  the  poor  law  is  being  agitated 
at  the  present  time  by  a  section  of  public  opinion.  Religious  and 
philanthropic  agencies  are  active,  and  Holland  possesses  no  fewer 
than  7,476  benevolent  institutions  of  various  kinds. 

There  is  no  general  poor  tax  in  Italy,  but  there  are  a  vast  num- 
ber of  benevolent  associations  and  institutions  of  every  description, 
many  of  them  extremely  ancient.  It  has  been  estimated  that  in 
1880  these  numbered  in  all  21,769,  of  which  3,582  were  hospitals, 
asylums,  schools,  asylums  for  the  insane,  blind,  and  dumb,  orphan- 
ages and  refuges,  enjoying  a  revenue  of  $27,026,770,  including  the 
subsidies  frequently  made  by  city  and  provincial  authorities.  The 
Italian  Statistical  Department  reports  that,  on  January  1,  1899, 
Italy  possessed  hospitals,  hospices,  orphanages,  lunatic  asylums,  in- 
stitutions for  the  blind  and  for  deaf-mutes,  poor-houses,  and  other 
similar  institutions  numbering  in  all  3,188,  and  containing  at  that 
date  274,848  inmates.  A  very  large  proportion  of  the  income  is 
drawn  from  real  estate,  the  charities  having  been  liberally  endowed. 
If  the  charges  of  administration  and  taxation,  both  of  which  are 
heavy,  and  also  the  expenditure  upon  worship  and  religious  cere- 
monies, be  deducted,  only  $16,903,256  are  left  for  directly  beneficent 
purposes.  In  1887  nearly  770,000  persons  received  alms.  Almost 
every  city  has  a  body  styled  the  Congregazione  di  Carita,  a  kind  of 
Associated  Charities,  the  administrators  of  which  are  appointed  by 
the  civic  authorities  in  order  to  supervise  minor  endowments.  By 
force  of  certain  laws  passed  in  1862  and  1890,  all  charities  must  send 
in  financial  statements  to  the  authorities  every  year,  and  the  Minis- 
ter of  the  Interior,  as  well  as  the  local  authorities,  have  a  general 
power  of  oversight  over  them.  It  has  been  the  task  of  the  legislature 
of  unified  Italy  not  so  much  to  prescribe  ways  and  means — the  ac- 
cumulated benevolence  of  centuries  provides  these  already — as  to 
regulate  and  control  the  administration  of  them,  and  it  has  aimed  at 


84  CHEISTENDOM. 

achieving  this  task  by  means  of  the  two  statutes  just  referred  to.  It 
is  to  be  observed  that  Italy's  position,  owing  to  her  possessing  the 
oldest  and  the  least  broken  record  of  civilization  of  any  country,  is 
unique.  Her  government  has  simply  to  control  the  administration 
of  private  beneficence,  not  to  supplement  it  with  a  system  of  its  own. 

From  what  has  already  been  said,  it  will  be  seen  how  vast  a  field 
is  covered  in  most  of  the  countries  of  Western  Europe,  as  well  as  in 
the  United  States,  by  systems  of  public  relief;  by  relief,  that  is  to 
say,  to  which  all  citizens  have  by  law  to  contribute,  whether  it  be 
controlled  by  the  township,  the  city,  the  county,  or  by  the  central 
government.  This  fact  should  never  be  left  out  of  sight  in  attempt- 
ing any  comprehensive  estimate  of  the  forces  engaged  and  the  results 
achieved  in  the  world-wide  struggle  to  elevate  the  lower  or  less  for- 
tunate strata  of  humanity.  As  far  as  the  community  relieves  the 
individual  of  the  task  of  caring  for  the  distressed,  so  far  it  also  de- 
prives him  of  the  opportunity  of  exercising  the  virtue  of  charity  (in 
the  restricted  sense  of  that  word).  At  the  same  time,  however,  this 
very  action  on  the  part  of  the  community  at  large  testifies  to  a  higher 
tone  of  public  opinion.  As  in  so  many  other  departments  of  life,  so 
in  that  of  charity,  undertakings  at  first  attempted  only  by  individ- 
uals, or  by  voluntary  associations,  or  by  religious  bodies,  have  been 
adopted  and  absorbed  by  the  state,  either  directly  or  by  devolution. 

Experience  shows  that  this  competition  of  the  state  does  not  en- 
tirely oust  voluntary  initiative.  An  instructive  investigation  from 
this  point  of  view  has  recently  been  published  by  Mr.  Frederick 
Almy,  of  Buffalo,  N.  Y.  Taking  the  forty  cities  of  the  Union  hav- 
ing a  population,  at  the  census  of  1890,  of  a  hundred  thousand  and 
upward,  he  compares  the  relative  proportions  of  public  (i.  e.,  muni- 
cipal) relief  and  of  private  relief.  He  concludes,  from  the  data  at 
his  disposal,  that  large  grants  of  public  relief  do  tend  to  check  the 
flow  of  relief  from  other  sources.  But  some  support  may  be  found, 
even  in  the  returns  he  himself  gives,  for  an  opposite  inference.  In 
Boston,  for  example,  relief  from  both  sources  is  abundant.  It  is 
notorious  that  the  same  era  which  witnesses  the  enhanced  activity  of 
the  public  powers  in  coping  with  distress  is  also  prolific  in  new 
forms  of  private  beneficence. 

The  greater  difficulty  of  obtaining  complete  and  adequate  infor- 
mation of  non-official  than  of  official  charity  impairs  the  conclusive- 
ness of  Mr.  Almy's  argument.     The  same  cause  obviously  tells  with 


PHILANTHROPY.  85 

redoubled  force  against  any  attempt  to  deal  exhaustively  with  the 
amount  and  extent  of  the  spontaneous  beneficence,  whether  individ- 
ual or  associated,  of  the  countries  of  Christendom.  Still,  while  any 
endeavor  of  so  ambitious  a  character  within  the  limits  of  the  present 
volume  could  only  result  in  failure,  the  following  review  of  the 
many  and  varied  forms  assumed  by  philanthropy,  those  especially  of 
more  recent  growth,  will,  it  is  hoped,  be  found  fairly  compre- 
hensive. 

The  altered  social  conditions  which  have  followed  in  the  wake  of 
advancing  civilization  have  effected  considerable  changes  in  the  func- 
tions of  philanthropy.  Some  classes  M^hose  claims  the  mediaeval 
church  urged  upon  the  attention  of  the  faithful  no  longer  exist; 
others  no  longer  stand  in  need,  their  necessities  being  met  through 
the  ordinary  channels  of  commerce.  Of  the  former,  the  lepers,  for 
whom  no  less  than  nineteen  thousand  lazar  houses  are  estimated  to 
have  existed  in  Western  Europe,  and  the  prisoners  captured  by  the 
Turks,  for  whose  ransom  large  sums  were  subscribed,  are  examples ; 
of  the  latter,  the  ordinary  peaceable  travelers,  for  whom  the  monas- 
teries regarded  it  as  a  sacred  duty  to  furnish  hospitality. 

A  vast  number  of  new  outlets  for  charity  have,  of  course,  taken 
their  place.  The  care  of  the  sick,  the  aged,  and  the  young  has 
descended  to  us,  as  we  have  already  seen,  from  the  age  of  primitive 
Christianity,  in  the  shape  of  hospitals  for  the  first,  hospices  for  the 
second  (and  the  older  institutions  usually  served  both  purposes), 
or  schools  and  foundling  asylums  for  the  last.  Frequently  all  three 
were  combined  as  departments  in  the  same  conventual  establishment. 
The  asylum  founded  for  three  hundred  blind  at  Paris,  by  St.  Louis, 
in  the  thirteenth  century,  known  as  the  Quinze-Vingts,  still  sub- 
serves its  original  purpose.  St.  Bartholomew's,  the  oldest  and  next 
largest  hospital  in  London,  was  founded  in  1123,  as  part  of  a  vast 
monastery,  and  several  of  the  principal  public  schools  for  secondary 
education  in  England  have  had  a  somewhat  similar  origin.  Since 
the  imparting  of  elementary  instruction,  and  the  support  of  the  in- 
digent in  old  age,  have  become  almost  everywhere  the  business  of  the 
state,  the  provision  of  education  alone,  apart  from  maintenance,  will 
probably  cease  to  be  a  function  of  charity ;  and  in  England,  at  any 
rate,  a  tendency  may  be  observed  to  limit  philanthropic  provision 
for  the  aged  to  those  who  can  show  some  further  claim  on  public 
sympathy  than  is  presented  by  destitution  alone. 

In  three  directions  the  improvement  in  the  institutional  care  of 


86  CHRISTENDOM. 

the  sick  has  been  specially  remarkable  of  late  years.  The  accommo- 
dation has  been  gi-eatly  improved.  Separate  infirmaries  have  been 
erected  for  sick  paupers,  instead  of  retaining  them  in  almshouses 
and  workhouses.  Further,  better  sanitary  precautions  have  been 
taken  in  erecting  hospitals,  such  as  thorough  ventilation  and  drain- 
age, and  the  use  of  glazed  tiles  for  lining  the  walls  of  wards  and 
passages.  Thus  the  atmosphere  inside  the  hospitals  is  purer,  the 
chances  of  septic  infection  and  of  general  cachexia  are  lessened,  and 
the  chances  of  ultimate  and  complete  recovery  proportionately  in- 
creased. Indeed,  the  new  pauper  infirmaries  are  sometimes  super- 
ior in  this  respect  to  the  older  endowed  hospitals.  Then,  the  stand- 
ard of  nursing  has  been  raised,  and  the  use  of  anaesthetics  and  anti- 
septics introduced  in  the  performance  of  surgical  operations. 
Trained  nurses  are  being  gradually  substituted  for  pauper,  or  at 
best  untrained,  attendants,  even  in  establishments  intended  for  the 
pauper  class.  The  State  Charities  Aid  Association  of  New  York 
has  the  credit  of  having  initiated  this  reform  in  America,  by  found- 
ing a  training  school  for  nurses  in  the  Bellevue  Hospital.  Between 
1879  and  1893  more  than  fifty  thousand  patients  were  nursed  by  its 
alumni,  many  of  whom  have  since  held  very  responsible  posts  as 
heads  of  institutions.  The  same  movement  has  long  been  in  pro- 
gress in  England,  owing  largely  to  the  influence  and  initiative  of 
Miss  Nightingale  and  Miss  Louisa  Twining.  And,  lastly,  there  has 
been  the  establishment  of  isolation  hospitals  for  infectious  diseases, 
combined  with  by-laws  for  the  notification  of  such  complaints  to  the 
authorities,  and  for  the  transport  of  the  sufferers  to  these  hospitals. 
According  to  German  writers  on  the  subject,  the  most  conspicuous 
achievement  in  this  direction  has  been  the  system  devised  by  the 
Metropolitan  Asylums  Board  of  London,  within  the  area  under  its 
jurisdiction. 

The  improvement  which  has  taken  place  in  the  treatment  of  the 
insane  within  the  last  hundred  years,  and  even  less,  has  amounted  to 
an  absolute  revolution.  The  special  disability  of  the  blind  has  been 
alleviated  by  the  invention  of  the  Moon  and  Braille  types,  and  that 
of  the  deaf  and  dumb  by  the  introduction  of  the  lip-language. 

The  numbers  of  associations  for  personal  philanthropic  service 
having  an  expressly  religious  origin  are  legion.  They  include  cer- 
tain of  the  conventual  orders  in  the  Roman  and  Anglican  commun- 
ions. In  other  churches,  also,  there  are  communities  the  members 
of  which  devote  themselves  exclusively  to  definite  branches  of  work 


PHILANTHROPY.  87 

of  a  philanthropic  character.  Five  such  communities  are  especially 
conspicuous  for  both  the  extent  and  the  diversity  of  their  operations. 
Each  is  the  outcome  of  the  talent  and  devotion  of  one  man.  St. 
Vincent  de  Paul,  of  whom  it  has  been  said  that  a  mixture  of  ardent 
charity  and  practical  sense  was  the  hallmark  of  his  work,  died  in 
1G60.  Besides  raising  and  dispensing  enormous  sums  in  alms-giv'- 
ing  and  establishing  various  hospitals,  he  founded  the  order  of  Sis- 
ters of  Charity,  with  whom  beneficence  was  to  be  the  business  of  the 
religious  life,  instead  of  being  only  a  by-product  of  it.  Its  mem- 
bers were  to  find  their  vocation  in  the  streets  and  homes  of  the  poor ; 
"their  only  convent  the  houses  of  the  sick,  their  cell  a  hired  room, 
their  chapel  the  parish  church."  At  the  present  moment  the  order 
is  said  to  number  twenty  thousand  members,  spread  over  Protestant 
as  well  as  Catholic  countries.  Equally  extensive  is  the  sphere  of 
the  Society  of  St.  Vincent  de  Paul,  which  enlists  the  services  of 
laymen  of  the  Roman  Church,  locally  organized  into  Councils  and 
Conferences.  Besides  visiting  and  alms-giving,  these  bodies  carry 
on  schools,  savings  banks,  soup-kitchens,  employment  bureaus,  and 
similar  philanthropic  works. 

Pastor  Fliedner,  of  Kaiserswerth,  in  Rhenish  Prussia,  who  died 
in  1864,  was  the  founder  of  an  order  of  deaconesses  for  the  purpose 
of  visiting,  nursing,  and  teaching  the  poor,  which  now  not  only  has  a 
network  of  branches  extending  throughout  the  German  Empire,  but 
maintains  establishments  in  Italy,  Palestine  and  elsewhere.  Their 
educational  work  is  not  confined  to  the  working  classes.  Fliedner 
subsequently  became  the  originator  of  a  kind  of  training  college  in 
philanthropic  work  for  young  men  who  intended  to  become  pastors, 
and  also  for  those  of  a  rather  lower  social  grade,  who  should  fill  such 
posts  as  superintendents  of  almshouses  and  labor  colonies.  At  the 
same  time,  a  somewhat  similar  work  was  being  carried  on  by  Dr. 
Wichern,  of  Horn,  near  Hamburg.  Having  first  established  a  num- 
ber of  cottage  homes  on  a  farm  for  street  arabs  and  young  thieves, 
who  were  there  taught  agriculture  and  handicrafts,  he  utilized  it  for 
training  young  men  for  work  in  philanthropic  institutions  by  set- 
ting them  to  live  with  the  boys,  and  to  teach  and  influence  them. 
From  these  young  men  was  recruited  the  band  known  as  the  Rauhe 
Haus  Brotherhood,  the  members  of  which  were  sent  into  whatever 
fields  of  work  Dr.  Wichern  and  his  committee  should  think  fit, 
whether  as  teachers,  city  missionaries,  or  officials  of  prisons,  refor- 
matories and  asylums,  and  wherever  men  of  the  German  race  have 


88  CHRISTENDOM. 

settled.  Thus  members  of  the  brotherhood  arc  engaged  in  Russia, 
America,  England  and  the  Turkish  Empire. 

The  Salvation  Army  is  the  growth  of  the  last  thirty  years.  Orig- 
inated in  England  by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  William  Booth,  simply  as  an 
evangelizing  movement,  it  has  bred  a  varied  host  of  philanthropic 
institutions — hospitals,  refuges  for  women,  shelters,  workshops  and 
farm  colonies  and  labor  bureaus  for  tramps  and  the  unemployed 
throughout  the  English-speaking  world,  as  well  as  in  several  conti- 
nental countries.  Japan  and  India  attest  its  manifold  activities, 
which,  indeed,  even  include  life  insurance.  A  very  important  fea- 
ture in  its  operation  is  the  Women's  Social  Section,  which  runs  125 
institutions  of  its  own.  In  thg  United  States  alone,  the  Army  pos- 
sesses homes  for  children  and  shelters  in  fourteen  states,  and  farm 
colonies  in  California  and  Colorado  and  at  Cleveland,  while  its  of- 
ficials compute  the  total  value  of  its  property  throughout  the  coun- 
try at  $600,000.  The  income  recorded  by  its  head  office  in  London 
considerably  exceeds  this  sum,  and  it  has  thirteen  shelters  in  that 
city  alone,  besides  a  farm  colony  at  Hadleigh,  and  institutions  of 
various  kinds  in  several  of  the  provincial  cities  of  England.  The 
Church  Army  to  some  extent  follows  in  its  social  work  in  the  track 
of  the  Salvation  Army.  It  also  has  extended  its  field  of  operations 
into  the  States,  as  well  as  throughout  the  British  Empire,  and  its 
undertakings  are  as  ambitious  and  all-embracing  as  those  of  its 
predecessor  and  ante-type.  It  has  an  emigration  test  farm  at  Uford, 
near  London,  an  emigration  agency  at  Montreal,  homes  for  inebri- 
ates, for  rescue  cases,  tramps  and  boys,  and  employment  registries. 
Its  income  in  1896  was  $465,000. 

These  five  societies  have  been  selected  for  separate  notice  because 
they  are  distinguished  both  by  the  many-sidedness  of  their  work  and 
by  its  international  character.  All  of  them,  it  is  believed,  include 
evangelization  among  their  functions. 

Turning  now  to  the  general  field  of  philanthropic  effort,  we  find 
that  it  has  pushed  forth  many  fresh  shoots  in  quite  new  directions 
during  the  past  century;  and  especially  within  the  last  thirty  or 
forty  years.  The  social  changes  entailed  by  the  rapid  strides  of 
civilization  within  this  period,  adding  to  the  complexity  of  life,  are 
largely  responsible  for  the  unfavorable  conditions — such  as  over- 
crowding, for  example — which  have  necessitated  such  action.  But 
without  the  immensely  enhanced  ease  and  rapidity  of  intercourse, 
which  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  features  of  the  present  epoch. 


PHILANTHROPY.  89 

several  of  our  latest  enterprises,  such  as  the  frcsli-air  movement, 
would  be  utterly  impossible. 

The  rehabilitation,  as  self-supporting  citizens,  of  the  able-bodied 
unemployed  and  of  tramps  and  liberated  prisoners,  is  a  difficult  prob- 
lem, evoking  the  expenditure  of  much  energy.  The  Salvation  Army 
and  the  Church  Army,  as  we  have  seen,  are  both  grappling  with  it. 
The  sphere  of  labor  colonies,  which  should  be  primarily  reformatory 
agencies,  insfead  of  penal  settlements  like  those  already  existing  in 
Holland  and  Belgium,  was  inaugurated  in  1882  by  Pastor  von  Bod- 
elschwingk,  with  the  opening  of  the  colony  at  Wilhelmsdorf,  in 
Westphalia.  Similar  colonies,  styled  "Arbeiterkolonien,"  have  since 
spread  throughout  Germany,  until  at  the  present  moment  they  num- 
ber thirty-two,  and  have  in  the  aggregate  accommodations  for  3,514 
inmates.  The  stay  of  each  man  does  not  exceed  four  months,  but 
is  often  much  less.  Of  7,065  men  who  left  the  colonies  in  1899, 
1,548  went  to  work  which  they  had  found  for  themselves,  or  which 
the  authorities  of  the  colony  had  procured  for  them;  3,895  left  of 
their  own  accord,  and  the  rest  left  through  illness  or  misbehavior. 
Nearly  two-thirds  of  those  admitted  during  the  year  had  been  in  one 
or  other  of  the  colonies  before.  In  connection  with  the  latter  are 
457  "Herbergen  zur  Heimath."  These  are  a  combination  of  way- 
farers' lodges  and  workmen's  boarding-houses.  They  receive  both 
paying  and  non-paying  guests,  who  numbered  in  1899  no  less  than 
2,066,544  persons.  Labor  bureaus  are  carried  on  in  connection  with 
them,  which  find  employment  for  about  6.6  per  cent,  of  the  men. 
Local  authorities,  as  well  as  the  benevolent  public,  subscribe  to  the 
support  of  these  institutions.  Committees  for  providing  the  unem- 
ployed with  temporary  jobs,  and  sometimes  with  shelter,  are  numer- 
ous in  France.  Fifty  of  them  are  affiliated  together  under  a  central 
committee  in  Paris,  and  there  is  at  least  one  farm-colony,  that  at 
Chalmette,  although  the  treatment  of  the  unemployed  in  set- 
tlements like  the  Arbeiterkolonien  has  not  met  with  general  adop- 
tion. 

Although  a  state  of  belligerency  is,  fortunately,  not  chronic  be- 
tween the  nations  of  Christendom,  it  is  well  that  the  machinery  for 
succoring  the  wounded  in  battle  should  be  permanently  organized  in 
time  of  peace,  as  it  is  in  the  Red  Cross  societies  of  most  nationalities. 
This  form  of  charity  is  especially  associated  in  the  States  with  the 
name  of  Miss  Clara  Barton,  as  it  is  throughout  the  British  Empire 
with  that  of  Miss  Florence  Nightingale.     Germany  has  a  trained 


90  CHRISTENDOM. 

staff  of  at  least  15,670  male  and  25,000  female  attendants  at  dis- 
posal for  Red  Cross  purposes. 

Of  late  years  there  has  been  a  marked  recrudescence  of  the  prac- 
tice of  nursing  the  sick  poor  in  their  own  homes.  It  was  carried  on 
long  ago  by  certain  conventual  orders,  and  is  so  still,  as  also  by  the 
deaconesses  of  Protestant  sisterhoods.  The  formation  of  staffs  of 
trained  lay  nurses  for  this  purpose  is,  however,  of  recent  date.  It 
was  first  introduced  in  the  States  in  1877,  by  the  Woman's  Branch 
of  the  New  York  City  Mission  and  Tract  Society.  We  have  already 
seen  that  domiciliary  nursing  has  a  place  in  the  public  care  of  the 
poor  in  France.  Local  societies  for  home-nursing  are  numerous  in 
London  and  other  English  towns,  and  congregations  frequently  sup- 
port nurses  in  their  own  parish  or  neighborhood. 

Agencies  for  procuring  change  of  air  and  scene  and  suitable  nour- 
ishment for  those  recovering  from  sickness  constitute  another  fea- 
ture of  the  latest  philanthropy.  Convalescent  treatment  is,  of 
course,  a  form  of  after-care  following  upon  a  sojourn  in  the  sick- 
room or  the  hospital,  but,  when  offered  in  time,  it  may  prove  to  be  a 
prophylactic  against  illness.  Poor  women  and  children  are  sent  to 
the  seashore  or  into  the  country  in  thousands  from  New  York  dur- 
ing the  summer  by  the  Society  for  Improving  the  Condition  of  the 
Poor,  the  Children's  Aid  Society,  the  Society  of  St.  Vincent  de  Paul, 
and  other  agencies,  and  the  same  kind  of  work  is  being  carried  on  in 
Boston,  Chicago,  and  probably  most  other  big  cities  of  the  Union. 
Some  of  the  English  hospitals  own  branch  establishments  by  the 
sea  and  in  the  open  country  for  their  patients  when  convalescent. 
There  are  some  350  institutions  for  this  purpose  in  England.  The 
Children's  Country  Holidays  Society  has  boarded  out  in  the  country 
over  thirty  thousand  children  attending  the  public  elementary 
schools  of  London  since  it  was  established  fifteen  years  ago.  Ger- 
many has  162  associations  for  providing  poor  children  with  change 
of  air  and  other  convalescent  treatment,  all  federated  together,  with 
a  central  bureau  in  Berlin.  They  dealt  with  37,479  children  in 
1898,  sending  some  to  convalescent  homes,,  others  to  sea-bath- 
ing places,  and  lodging  others,  again,  with  farmers  in  the 
country. 

Day-nurseries,  or  creches,  in  which  mothers  who  have  to  go  out  to 
work  can  place  their  infants  during  the  daytime,  are  a  special  fea- 
ture of  French  philanthropy,  though  they  are  to  be  met  with  in  other 
countries  also.     There  are  nearly  a  hundred  in  Paris  and  its  environs 


PHILANTHROPY.  91 

alone,  many  of  them  being  subsidized  by  the  municipality,  and  a 
few  belonging  to  it. 

Not  only  has  the  treatment  of  the  insane  been  reformed,  but  at- 
tention is  being  bestowed  on  the  after-care  of  persons  convalescent 
from  insanity — that  is,  on  obtaining  for  them  change  of  air  and 
scene  on  quitting  asylums,  and  subsequently  employment,  thus  aiding 
them  to  resume  their  place  in  society.  Societies  having  this  object 
in  view  exist  in  the  States,  France,  and  England. 

Within  the  last  ten  years  much  attention  has  been  directed  toward 
providing  suitable  institutions  for  two  classes  of  defectives  who,  till 
quite  recently,  have  been  herded  with  ordinary  paupers  in  poor- 
houses  or  else  left  to  be  a  burden  upon  their  relatives.  Epileptics 
are  seriously  handicapped  in  the  struggle  for  existence  by  their  con- 
stant liability  to  a  malady  which  not  only  temporarily  disables  them, 
but  may  also  render  them  dangerous  to  others,  and  yet  does  not  in- 
capacitate them  for  the  ordinary  duties  of  life  in  the  intervals  be- 
tween its  attacks.  Experience  has  shown  that  epileptics  are  capable 
of  working  together  and  of  giving  mutual  assistance  on  the  occur- 
rence of  seizures.  Accordingly,  colonies  for  this  class  are  springing 
up  in  several  states  of  the  Union,  including  New  York,  Pennsyl- 
vania, New  Jersey,  and  Massachusetts.  Of  these  the  Craig  Colony, 
in  New  York,  comprising  620  patients,  is  perhaps  the  most  widely 
known.  The  same  movement  is  in  progress  in  England,  which  has 
a  colony  at  Chalfont,  besides  several  homes.  Pastor  von  Bodel- 
schwingk,  wlio  has  been  already  mentioned  in  these  pages,  has  intro- 
duced the  system  into  Germany,  where,  besides  the  colony  founded 
by  himself  at  Bielefeld,  that  of  Wuhlgarten  accommodates  nearly  a 
thousand,  and  is  maintained  by  the  municipality.  The  second  class 
is  that  of  the  feeble-minded.  The  term  is  sometimes  used  to  in- 
clude the  imbecile,  but  properly  it  should  be  limited  to  those  only 
who  are  above  the  latter  class,  j;hough  mentally  deficient  and  in- 
capable of  holding  their  own  in  the  battle  of  life.  It  is  now  gener- 
ally recognized  that  such  persons,  especially  when  females,  ought  to 
be  under  guardianship,  both  for  their  own  protection  and  for  the 
public  welfare,  since  they  are  extremely  apt  to  have  illegitimate  off- 
spring, although  it  has  not  yet  been  deemed  necessary  to  place  them 
under  compulsory  restraint.  New  York  possesses  a  Custodial  Asy- 
lum for  Females  at  Syracuse,  but  the  feeble-minded  are  most  com- 
monly grouped  with  imbeciles  and  epileptics  in  the  same  institutions. 
There  are  a  few  voluntary  homes  for  girls  and  young  women  in 


92  CHRISTENDOM. 

England,  and  separate  public  elementary  schools  have  been  estab- 
lished in  London,  where  feeble-minded  children  receive  special 
attention  in  the  expectation  that  a  large  number  of  them  may  thus 
be  enabled  eventually  to  take  their  place  in  the  community  as  normal 
citizens. 

Although  prisons  are  in  themselves  by  no  means  charitable  insti- 
tutions, yet  the  spirit  of  charity  has  inspired  a  great  reform  in  the 
treatment  of  prisoners  during  their  term  of  sentence.  With  regard 
to  discharged  prisoners,  the  practice  in  Minnesota,  and  probably  in 
other  states,  is  to  appoint  a  prison  official  to  supervise  men  released 
on  probation  and  to  obtain  employment  for  them.  In  England  a 
somewhat  similar  function  is  performed  by  voluntary  associations  in 
connection  with  each  of  the  sixty-one  English  prisons,  aided  by  a 
grant  from  the  Government.  Societies  for  the  same  purpose  exist 
in  France  and  in  the  great  towns  of  German3^  Large  numbers  of 
discharged  prisoners  in  the  latter  country  resort  to  the  Arbeiter- 
kolonien. 

A  very  different  department  of  government  which  has  none  the 
less  been  influenced  by  philanthropy  is  the  housing  of  the  poor,  al- 
though action,  as  well  public  as  private,  has  also  been  undoubtedly 
stimulated  by  the  selfish  consideration  that  diseases  originating 
amid  the  squalor  of  extreme  poverty  are  apt  to  spread  among  the 
families  of  the  respectable  and  wealthy.  The  Tenement  Exhibition 
held  in  New  York  in  February  of  last  year,  and  organized  in  order 
to  show  how  much  remains  to  be  done,  as  well  as  how  much  has  al- 
ready been  accomplished,  will  be  fresh  in  the  minds  of  readers.  Dr. 
Gould,  of  the  City  and  Suburban  Homes  Company,  has  stated  that 
more  than  a  hundred  million  dollars  have  been  invested  in  the  big 
cities  of  Europe  and  America  in  improved  dwellings.  The  move- 
ment has  now  proved  a  commercial  success,  but  it  began  as  philan- 
thropy, and,  in  the  case  of  model  dwellings  founded  by  the  late 
George  Peabody,  it  continues  to  be  so  still,  since,  all  profits  are  de- 
voted to  erecting  new  dwellings.  In  some  tenements  of  this  class 
the  rent  is  collected  by  ladies,  who  combine  the  functions  of  landlords 
and  friendly  visitors.  In  many  instances,  benevolent  persons,  fol- 
lowing in  the  steps  of  Miss  Octavia  Hill,  of  London,  buy  up  and 
endeavor  to  improve  old  tenements  and  their  tenants  at  the  same 
time.  The  movement  has  spread  to  Berlin.  Some  of  the  capital  of 
the  celebrated  governmental  insurance  institutions  of  Germany  is 
being  applied  to  the  erection  of  improved  dwellings.     The  Tene- 


PHILANTHEOPY.  93 

ments  Commission  in  New  York  and  the  Mansion  House  Council  on 
Dwellings  of  the  Poor,  in  London,  promote  the  passing  of  sanitaxy 
legislation  and  stimulate  its  enforcement,  and  this  introduces  us  to  a 
fresh  phase  of  philanthropy,  namely,  the  protection  of  the  feebler 
classes  of  the  community  against  particular  forms  of  oppression  or 
against  their  own  failings.  While  the  above-named  associations 
protect  tenants  against  unscrupulous  landlords,  the  well-known  So- 
cieties for  the  Prevention  of  Cruelty  to  Children  in  New  York  and 
England,  and  the  Association  Protectrice  de  I'Enfants,  in  France, 
protect  children  against  unscrupulous  parents,  and  there  are  others 
which  aim  at  protecting  the  interests  of  married  and  other  women  in 
various  ways. 

Again,  there  is  the  form  of  philanthropy  which  seeks  to  raise  the 
status  and  character,  while  adding  to  the  happiness,  of  its  proteges 
through  the  medium  of  kindly  social  influence.  It  is  of  quite  mod- 
ern growth  and  it  assumes  a  large  variety  of  shapes.  Perhaps  the 
vas^  amount  of  house-to-house  visitation  of  the  poorer  quarters  of 
American  and  English  towns,  set  on  foot  and  controlled  by  the 
clergy  of  the  principal  religious  denominations,  may  be  referred  to 
most  appropriately  at  this  point.  The  practice  obtains  also  in  Ber- 
lin. In  these  and  many  other  cases  the  rendering  of  material  assist- 
ance is  not  excluded.  Opening  evening  clubs  for  young  men,  young 
women  and  boys  is  one  of  the  examples  of  this  kind  of  benevolence 
most  frequently  met  with.  Here  classes  for  instruction,  books  and 
games  are  provided,  and  opportunities  for  conversation  are  afforded. 
Accommodation  for  social  gatherings  is  occasionally  included  in  the 
construction  of  model  tenements.  Institutions  such  as  these  are  de- 
signed to  appeal  to  very  different  social  grades,  ranging  from  street 
arabs  and  "hooligans"  to  clerks  and  shop-assistants.  In  planning  a 
club,  regard  has  to  be  paid  to  the  class  for  whom  it  is  intended.  The 
more  intelligent  and  respectable  the  class,  the  greater  the  share  in 
the  management  of  the  club,  which  may  be,  and  ought  to  be,  en- 
trusted to  the  general  body  of  its  members.  Evening  amusements 
are  often  provided  in  public  elementary  schools  for  the  scholars  at- 
tending them  in  the  daytime. 

In  some  instances  societies  which  were  originated  for  evangelistic 
purposes  have  developed  an  educational  and  recreative  side.  The 
Young  Men's  and  the  Young  Women's  Christian  Associations  are 
examples  of  this  expansion.  Formed  in  the  middle  of  the  century, 
with  the  expressed  object  "to  endeavor  to  bring  young  men  from  a 


94  CHRISTENDOM. 

life  of  sin  to  a  life  of  righteousness,"  these  twin  societies  have  now 
educational  classes,  libraries,  gymnasiums,  meeting-rooms,  and 
boarding-houses,  and  convalescent  homes  in  connection  with  their 
headquarters  in  the  chief  cities  of  the  United  States  and  the  British 
Empire.  In  Great  Britain  alone  the  Young  Men's  Society  has  1,471 
centres,  and  103,420  members.  The  sphere  of  activity  of  both  so- 
cieties is  co-extensive  with  the  English-speaking  world,  as  is  also  that 
of  the  Girls'  Friendly  Society,  which  is  controlled  by  members  of  the 
Protestant  Episcopalian  Church,  and  which  makes  a  special  feature 
of  its  establishments  for  training  girls  for  domestic  service.  Neigh- 
borhood guilds  and  college  settlements  are  agencies  of  very  recent 
origin,  carrying  on  an  analogous  type  of  work.  Of  these,  Hull 
House,  Chicago,  and  Toynbee  Hall,  London,  are  notable  examples. 
Members  of  these  settlements  do  not  confine  themselves  to  direct 
work  among  the  sections  of  the  community  whom  they  desire  to 
benefit,  but  by  also  serving  upon  city  councils  and  other  public  bodies 
they  endeavor  to  infuse  wisdom  and  honesty  into  the  conduct  of  pub- 
lic affairs.  Hull  House  has  exerted  itself  notably  in  promoting  the 
efficiency  of  the  sanitary  service  of  the  quarter  of  Chicago  in  which 
its  headquarters  are  located.  There  are  at  least  two  societies  in 
Berlin  which  arrange  lectures,  concerts,  and  theatrical  representa- 
tions for  the  working-classes.  In  Dresden  and  several  other  towns 
in  Germany  there  are  associations  of  a  somewhat  similar  character, 
called  "Voreine  fiir  Volkswohl."  That  of  Dresden  holds  classes  in 
English,  cookery,  arithmetic  and  book-keeping,  lectures  on  hygiene 
and  choir  practices,  besides  recitations  and  entertainments.  All 
classes  mix  together  at  these  assemblies,  a  very  gratifying  feature  of 
which  is  that  those  who  help  to  entertain  are  equally  drawn  from  all 
classes. 

It  would  })e  impossible  to  overestimate  the  social  service  rendered 
by  these  settlements  and  clubs  and  drawing-rooms  in  constituting  a 
common  meeting-ground  where  mutually  helpful  acquaintanceships 
may  be,  and  very  often  are,  formed  between  persons  belonging  to 
very  different  sections  of  the  community,  because  the  intercourse 
which  takes  place  in  them  is  untainted,  or  at  least  may  and  ought  to 
be  untainted,  with  the  giving  of  relief  or  with  the  adoption  of  a  tone 
of  authority. 

A  form  of  benevolence  especially  characteristic  of  American  cities 
is  the  system  of  "friendly  visitors."  Boston  is  the  home  of  this 
movement,  and  there  are  no  fewer  than  a  thousand  of  these  visitors 


PHILANTHKOPY.  95 

working  in  that  city.  It  is  their  business  to  give  advice,  and  to  act 
as  go-betweens,  when  the  case  requires  it,  between  the  people  they 
visit  and  hospitals  and  relief  agencies,  but  not  to  give  money  or  any 
other  kind  of  relief  themselves.  They  are  organized  into  sixteen 
district  committees,  each  with  an  agent  and  an  office  where  they  can 
meet  periodically  for  consultation.  This  scheme  has  been  adopted 
in  several  other  cities,  though  not  everywhere  with  as  much  success 
as  in  Boston.  In  Newport,  R.  I.,  it  has  been  discontinued.  On  the 
whole,  the  opinion  seems  to  be  gaining  ground  that  those  oppor- 
tunities of  exercising  a  beneficial  influence  on  the  poorer  and  less 
educated  classes  are  the  happiest  which  occur  naturally  in  such  re- 
lationships as  exist  between  teachers  and  their  scholars'  parents,  or 
lady  rent-collectors  and  tenants.  Collecting  from  house  to  house  for 
money  to  put  in  the  savings  bank  has  frequently  been  found  to  gain 
a  ready  welcome  for  visitors  in  the  houses  of  the  poor.  Where  such 
relations  exist,  the  visiting  can  take  place  on  a  footing  of  friendly 
equality  which  can  scarcely  exist  when  the  sole  and  obvious  object 
of  the  visit  is  to  give  relief  or  even  good  advice.  Accordingly,  a 
tendency  is  observable  among  the  clergy  to  avail  themselves  of  these 
relations  as  a  basis  on  which  to  organize  the  district-visiting  in  their 
parishes. 

Friendly  visiting  is,  nevertheless,  one  form  of  a  new  departure 
in  philanthropy  which  has  made  vast  strides  on  both  sides  of  the  At- 
lantic within  the  last  thirty  years.  This  is  no  less  than  the  co- 
ordination of  charitable  workers  and  institutions  into  an  organic 
whole,  which  shall,  by  basing  the  administration  of  material  relief 
of  all  kinds  upon  certain  definite  principles,  and  by  making  it  sub- 
servient to  and  an  agent  in  the  moulding  and  strengthening  of  char- 
acter in  the  recipients  themselves  and  in  the  social  strata  from 
which  they  spring,  build  up  the  national  life  instead  of  exercising 
upon  it  the  prejudicial  influence  which  experience  has  shown  to  re- 
sult from  injudicious  benevolence. 

The  first  Charity  Organization  Society  was  founded  in  1869  in 
London,  and  was  succeeded  within  the  course  of  a  few  years  by  those 
of  Buffalo,  Boston  and  New  York.  There  are  now  128  in  the  United 
States  and  103  in  the  British  Empire.  Paris  has  its  Office  Central 
des  CEuvres  de  Bienfaisance,  and  associations  discharging  similar 
functions  exist  in  eight  other  towns  of  France,  and  also  in  Berlin. 
The  leading  principles  of  the  organization  of  charity,  that  the  giving 
of  relief  must  be  preceded  by  adequate  knowledge  of  the  recipient 


96  CHRISTENDOM. 

and  liis  circumstances,  that  it  must  not  deteriorate  character,  and 
that  there  must  be  a  free  interchange  of  information  between  philan- 
thropic agencies,  are  thus  steadily  gaining  ground  in  all  directions. 

Thus  far  we  have  been  principally  engaged  in  considering  activi- 
ties instigated  actually,  or  at  least  professedly,  by  the  motive  of  phil- 
anthropy. Those  workmen's  dwellings  companies  referred  to  a 
few  pages  back  constitute  a  connecting  link  with  another  phase,  less 
tangible,  indeed,  but  not  a  whit  less  real,  under  which  the  genuine 
spirit  of  beneficence  asserts  itself,  and  which  must  not  be  overlooked. 

The  commercial  and  industrial  world,  as  a  rule,  preserves  a  very 
clear  line  of  demarcation  between  its  business  and  its  charity.  It 
permits  its  right  hand  to  ignore  what  its  left  hand  is  doing.  Indeed, 
its  left  hand — that  is,  its  charit}' — is  partly  engaged  in  rectifying,  or 
at  least  in  mitigating,  some  of  the  evil  consequences  resulting  from 
the  deeds  of  the  right  hand.  Fortunately,  this  is  not  true  of  all 
business  men.  Some  there  are,  for  instance,  who  refuse  to  regard 
the  remuneration  of  their  employees  as  the  very  first  item  of  their 
working  expenses  to  be  reduced  in  order  the  better  to  meet  the  com- 
petition of  rival  producers,  and  who  prefer  to  run  their  factories  at 
half  time  during  a  depression  of  trade  rather  than  to  subject  their 
workpeople  to  the  demoralizing  effects  of  intermittent  employment. 
Action  of  this  kind  is  frequently,  but  somewhat  unjustly,  attributed 
to  enlightened  selfishness.  It  is  alleged  that  the  practical  advan- 
tages of  promoting  a  good  understanding  with  one's  hands  are  so 
obvious  that  self-interest  by  itself  demands  that  it  should  be  at- 
tempted. In  practice,  however,  there  is  always  an  element  of  risk 
attending  the  adoption  of  such  a  policy.  This  is  especially  the  case 
in  commencing  a  new  undertaking,  for  then  the  business  man  is 
voluntarily  handicapping  himself,  at  least  for  the  moment,  in  his 
race  with  strenuous  competitors  already  in  the  field. 

To  respect  the  claims  of  employees  while  planning  how  to  earn 
gross  profits  is  benevolence  of  a  higher  type  than  to  regard  such 
claims  for  the  first  time,  if  at  all,  when  deciding  how  to  spend  one's 
net  profits.  On  this  higher  plane  must  be  placed,  among  others,  the 
efforts  of  men  like  the  late  Charles  Robert,  of  Paris,  and  his  imi- 
tators, who  introduced  the  practice  of  entitling  employees  to  partici- 
pate in  the  profits  of  their  employers'  undertakings,  and  of  those 
captains  of  indu«try  and  representatives  of  labor  who  have  sought  to 
supersede  the  appeal  to  the  rude  test  of  strikes  and  lock-outs  by  con- 
ciliation and  arbitration.     The  same  may  be  said  of  the  achieve- 


PHILAXTHKOPY.  97 

ments  of  founders  of  industrial  communities  such  as  those  of  Low- 
ell, Mass.,  and  Dayton,  Ohio,  in  Amenea;  Saltaire  and  Boumville, 
in  England,  and  the  Carl  Zeiss  Stiftung,  in  Germany. 

Immense  as  is  the  total  output  of  the  charitable  activity  of  Chris- 
tendom, there  is  a  reverse  side  to  it.  Unwary  benevolenc-e  is  the 
natural  prey  of  the  designing  promoter  of  bogus  institutions,  and 
even  sometimes  of  the  authorized  solicitor  on  behalf  of  bona  fide 
undertakings,  as  well  as  of  impostors  who  feign  poverty.  Then, 
there  is  the  temptation  to  which  ministers  of  rehgion  and  others  en- 
gaged in  evangelistic  work  not  infrequently  yield  of  availing  them- 
selves of  the  alleviation  of  material  wants  as  a  kind  of  bait  to  at- 
tract '"'the  man  in  the  street"  to  their  services,  although  not  a  few 
far-sighted  clergymen  have  recognized  that  such  practices  do  in 
reality  impair  their  spiritual  influence.  Charity  bazaars  are  becom- 
ing recognized  as  not  unmixed  blessings,  and  as  sometimes  no  more 
excusable  than  the  ''Wohlthatige  Skatabende"  (benevolent  card-par- 
ties) of  Germany. 

A  graver  evil  lies  in  the  mischief  unintentionally  wrought  by  un- 
intelligent or  uninstructed  philanthropy.  In  the  words  of  Miss 
Louisa  Twining,  *'The  shortcomings  of  the  inexperienced  and  sym- 
pathetic district  visitor  are  well  known,  and  I  have  no  hesitation  in 
saying  that,  by  the  visits  of  those  who  will  not  take  pains  to  obtain 
the  training  necessary  for  the  most  difficult  of  all  social  work,  more 
harm  than  good  is  done ;  begging,  imposture,  and  an  appearance  of 
poverty  are  encouraged  that  help  may  be  largely  given,  and  tickets 
and  doles  are  expected  as  a  right,  though  utterly  inadequate  to  meet 
the  needs,  if  they  really  exist,  even  for  one  day."  In  the  analysis 
of  the  causes  of  poverty,  given  us  by  Amos  G.  Warner  in  his  standard 
work  on  American  charities,  is  enumerated  as  the  last  item,  'TTnwise 
Philanthropy,''  and  he  quotes  with  approval  the  words  of  the  phil- 
osopher, Walter  Bagehot:  "Great  good,  no  doubt,  philanthropy 
does,  but  it  does  also  great  harm  .  .  .  and  this  is  entirely  be- 
cause exc-ellent  people  fancy  that  they  can  do  much  by  rapid  action, 
that  they  will  most  benefit  the  world  when  they  most  relieve  their 
own  feelings,  that  as  soon  as  an  evil  is  seen  'something'  ought  to  be 
done  to  stay  and  to  prevent  it." 

At  this  point  the  charity  organization  societies  before  alluded  to 
step  in  and  supply  the  much-needed  machinery  for  education  in  the 
intelligent  practice  of  charity  by  holding  conferences  of  charities  and 
correction,  of  which  the  twenty-seventh  annual  National  Conference 


98  CHRISTENDOM. 

was  held  last  year  at  Topeka,  Kan.  In  these  assemblies  progressive 
reforms  are  advocated,  the  latest  views  of  the  best  and  most  ad- 
vanced thinkers  and  workers  are  ventilated,  and  difficulties  are  dis- 
cussed. As  the  conference  is  an  itinerating  body,  meeting  each  year 
in  some  fresh  city,  its  educative  influence  on  local  opinion  must  be 
considerable.  In  addition  to  these  conferences,  summer  schools  in 
philanthropic  work  are  held  in  New  York  and  probably  elsewhere. 
Besides  attending  lectures,  the  students  are  shown  over  hospitals  and 
other  charitable  institutions,  and  are  also  afforded  opportunities  of 
acquiring  practical  experience  in  visiting  among  the  poor.  In  Eng- 
land, also,  the  greatest  stress  is  laid  upon  training  workers  on  the 
charity  organization  committees  in  practical  thoroughness  and  in 
width  of  view.  The  need  for  such  training  is  being  recognized,  too, 
in  Germany.  Classes  of  instruction  for  almoners  have  been  held  in 
Berlin  by  Stadtrath  Dr.  Miinsterberg,  a  prominent  official  in  the 
administration  of  public  charity  in  that  city,  with  the  result  that 
the  students  attending  the  classes  have  induced  him  to  publish  the 
substance  of  his  lectures.  It  may  be  added  that  very  comprehensive 
directories  of  both  official  and  voluntary  charities  are  published  by 
the  Charity  Organization  Society  of  London,  the  Gesellschaft  fiir 
Ethische  Kultur,  in  Berlin,  and  the  municipality  of  Amsterdam. 

To  sum  up  the  conclusions  suggested  by  the  above  survey,  there 
are  three  traits  which  appear  especially  to  characterize  the  benevo- 
lence of  the  closing  years  of  the  nineteenth  century.  One  of  these 
is  the  growing  recognition  of  the  fact  that  the  intricate  and  mutually 
independent  conditions  of  modern  civilized  life  necessitate  the  most 
careful  research  into  the  indirect,  as  well  as  the  immediate,  results 
of  his  liberality  on  the  part  of  every  wise  philanthropist,  if  he  would 
not  undo  with  one  hand  more  than  all  he  can  succeed  in  achieving 
with  the  other.  And,  if  this  be  true  of  the  individual,  it  is  tenfold 
truer  of  the  association,  the  city,  and  the  nation.  Witness  the  re- 
sults of  reckless  subsidizing  of  private  charities  from  the  public 
purse  without  a  proper  system  of  public  inspection  and  control  in 
America,  as  chronicled  by  the  late  Professor  Amos  G.  Warner  and 
Mrs.  Josephine  Shaw  Lowell,  or  the  lavish  expenditure  in  out-relief 
for  which  some  English  towns  are  even  now  distinguished,  notwith- 
standing the  trenchant  exposure  of  the  abuses  to  which  public  assist- 
ance is  peculiarly  liable  embodied  in  the  Poor  Law  Commissioners' 
Report  of  1832. 

The  second  is  the  tendency  to  develop  social  service  and  social  in- 


PHILANTHEOPY. 


99 


tercourse  between  the  extremes  of  society,  so  as  by  elevating  the  tone 
of  life  among  the  poor  to  eliminate  some,  at  any  rate,  of  the  causes 
of  poverty,  and  therefore  of  the  necessity  of  almsgiving. 

And,  lastly,  in  philanthropy  as  in  commerce,  the  city  or  the  state 
displays  a  tendency  to  take  over,  or  else  to  compete  with,  the  under- 
takings due  to  private  enthusiasm  or  enterprise  when,  the  initial 
difficulties  having  been  overcome  and  the  experimental  stage  having 
been  passed,  their  utility  and  feasibility  have  been  satisfactorily 
demonstrated.  This  is  a  phenomenon  more  especially,  perhaps, 
noticeable  in  England,  where,  until  well  on  in  the  century  Just 
closed,  whatever  educational  and  medical  care  the  poor  received  was 
due  least  of  all  to  the  state.  But  it  may  also  be  met  with  on  the 
western  side  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean. 


ART  IN  ITS  RELATION  TO  RELIGIOUS  AND 
SOCIAL  WELL-BEING. 


Francis  E.  Marsten,  D.D., 

NEW    YORK. 

[In  the  ruder  stages  of  national  and  individual  life,  men  are  educated 
religiously  by  and  through  the  aid  of  sensuous  imagery,  either  in  outward 
embodiment  or  in  those  ceremonial  observances  which  suggest  and  typify  the 
inward  and  recondite  truths  aimed  at — which  paganism  everywhere  uses, 
which,  with  a  nicer  application  and  a  wiser  forelook,  made  up  the  Hebrew 
polity,  and  which  the  Church  of  Rome  now  so  largely  retains  in  her  ritual — 
or  in  those  less  gross  and  ideal  forms  which  make  the  staple  of  our  modem 
creeds  and  practices ;  and  it  remains  yet  a  profound  problem  whether,  dis- 
pensing with  them,  society  could  have  attained  the  spiritual  culture  and  in- 
tellectual elevation  which  now  characterizes  it.  Yet,  with  all  the  admitted 
advantages  which  have  flowed  from  such  a  machinerj',  it  has  been  liable 
to  the  most  serious  abuse,  when  not  closely  watched  and  guarded  by  divine 
counteractants,  in  landing  the  devotee  into  the  depths  of  a  degraded  and 
besotted  idolatry.  The  reason  is  appai'ent :  Between  the  idea  of  truth 
aimed  at  and  the  human  mind  on  which  it  is  to  be  impressed  stands  the 
symbol,  the  rite,  the  agency,  the  instituted  means ;  by  ceremony,  by  pic- 
ture, by  cross,  by  altar,  by  temple,  by  whatever  of  sensuous  appliance  de- 
signed to  aid  the  imagination  and  impress  the  sensibilities,  which  tradition 
or  custom  may  have  introduced  and  sanctioned.  Here  intervening  as  by 
authority,  they  gain  for  themselves  a  lodgment  which  gradually  obscures 
the  truth  they  were  originally  designed  to  symbolize;  and  so  the  agency 
supplants  the  principle,  and  what  was  intended  as  the  scaffolding  comes 
in  process  of  time  to  be  regarded  as  the  building.  And  by  a  degeneracy 
easily  understood,  the  imagination  dominates  every  other  faculty,  and  leads 
to  the  worship  of  the  altar  instead  of  God  ;  the  cross,  instead  of  Him  who 
died  thereon  ;  or  wastes  the  sensibilities  in  an  absurd  flutter  of  robes  and 
tippets  of  sacred  millinery,  and  the  ritualistic  posture — putting  of  head  and 
hands  and  knees  to  ape  the  external  form  of  a  devotion  which  has  wholly 
escaped  the  heart. — "Renascent  Christianity,"  page  1G5. — Ed.] 
*  *  * 

The  relations  of  art  to  religion  and  social  progress  may  hardly 
be  exhibited  in  justice  to  so  large  a  subject  in  the  brief  pages  de- 
voted to  the  present  essay. 

The  century  just  closed  has  witnessed  a  wonderful  development 
in  this  regard.     Indeed,  it  is  quite  beyond  all  the  dreams  that  the 

100 


ART    AND    PROGRESS.  101 

most  sanguine  entertained  at  its  beginning.  Plato  in  his  treatment 
of  ideas  discussed  art  on  its  ethical  side.  The  greatness  of  his  mind 
is  shown  by  the  subtility  and  depth  with  which  he  treats  this  theme. 
His  masterly  delineation  has  never  been  surpassed.  But  before 
Plato  art  was.  For  man  is  an  artistic  as  well  as  a  religious  being; 
and  art  has  an  ethical  and  spiritual  mission,  so  stoutly  denied  in 
certain  quarters.  God  predominates  in  the  idea  of  religion ;  man  in 
in  the  idea  of  art. 

Religion  and  art  have  thus  a  common  root  in  the  constitution  of 
the  soul,  a  relation  real  and  never  to  be  broken. 

There  are  different  systems  of  SBsthetics,  it  is  true;  but  in  all  of 
them  it  is  acknowledged  that  the  mind  has  that  quality,  or  sensibil- 
ity, which  is  the  mind's  power  of  receiving  impressions  from  the  out- 
side world.  We  may  call  it  feeling,  but  not  of  the  senses.  We  see 
supremely  magnified  in  artists  this  instinct  for  form,  by  which  the 
mind  must  and  will  express  itself  in  art,  just  as  truly  as  it  must  and 
will  express  itself  in  the  domain  of  knowledge.  For  the  work  of  the 
exalted  imaginative  faculty  may  not  be  excluded  even  in  the  investi- 
gation of  truth.  If  it  is,  we  must  eliminate  the  preachers  and 
prophets  of  the  Church  of  Christ.  Even  Kant,  writing  of  the  valid- 
ity of  our  aBsthetic  impressions,  says  that  the  meaning  and  mission 
of  Beauty  is  to  symbolize  moral  good. 

Ruskin,  in  his  "Philosophy  of  Art,"'  classes  the  aesthetic  faculty 
among  spiritual  powers  that  typify  the  Divine  attributes — infinity, 
symmetry,  repose,  purity,  moderation  and  holiness.  Art  may  really 
be  said  to  be  the  interpretation  of  the  soul  in  its  loftiest  thoughts 
which  rise  toward  God  and  set  forth  his  qualities. 

In  seeking  to  trace  the  history  of  art  for  any  period  we  must  begin 
with  the  relation  of  art  to  the  human  mind.  For  art  belongs  to  man 
as  religion  belongs  to  him.  So  its  manifestation  will  be  seen  in  his 
religion,  and  have  its  effect  upon  it  just  as  well  as  upon  his  intel- 
lectual life. 

The  relation  of  art  to  religion  is  revealed  under  three  aspects :  In 
education,  as  a  great  factor  in  social  well-being  and  progress;  in 
morality;  in  worship.  In  making  up  the  record  of  the  age  and 
reviewing  the  sweep  of  the  century  closed,  our  survey  would  be  very 
imperfect  unless  we  took  into  account  the  effects  of  art.  It  is  one 
of  the  great  underlying  facts  of  human  history,  and  it  has  been  well 
said  that  the  history  of  art  is  the  history  of  man. 

John  Stuart  Mill,  Utilitarian  that  he  was,  wrote :     "Science  con- 


102  CHRISTENDOM. 

sists  in  knowing,  art  in  doing ;  what  I  must  do  in  order  to  know  is 
art  subordinate  to  or  concerned  in  science;  what  I  must  know  in 
order  to  do,  is  science  subordinate  to  or  concerned  in  art." 

A  study  of  what  we  owe  to  art  may  well  be  begun  in  some  such 
way  as  this.  Let  us  try  to  take  away  the  fine  arts  from  life.  How 
much  of  human  advancement  do  we  lose  at  a  stroke !  The  spirit  and 
character  of  every  nation  from  the  dawn  of  history  has  been  reflected 
in  its  art.  What  would  be  left  of  their  history  if  art  was  swept  out 
of  that  which  remains  to  us  of  the  life  of  Assyria,  Egypt,  Greece, 
Rome,  to  say  nothing  of  the  medigeval  peoples,  the  renaissance  of 
learning  in  Europe,  the  rise  of  Protestantism  ? 

Art  lies  near  the  heart  of  humanity  as  an  instructor.  Poetry  and 
art  nestle  close  to  the  religious  affections.  Herman  Grimm  de- 
clares, hi  his  "Life  of  Michael  Angelo,"  "there  are  three  means  of 
instructing  mankind  as  to  what  has  happened  or  is  happening — 
plastic  art,  poetry,  and  history.  Of  the  earliest  Egyptian  traces  all 
knowledge  is  wanting  of  deeds  and  personalities ;  we  have  only  names 
and  works  of  art,  but  the  latter  so  eloquent,  so  convincing.  .  .  . 
And  there  is  another  example :  we  are  accustomed  to  look  upon  the 
Reformation  as  a  movement  growing  chiefly  out  of  literary  antagon- 
isms. The  political  and  moral  incentives  whose  combined  workings 
brought  about  the  final  great  result  have  often  been  analyzed;  but 
what  role  art  played  will  be  generally  known  only  when  the  influence 
of  religious  art  in  Germany,  and  its  peculiar  nature  up  to  the  time  of 
Diirer,  has  been  thoroughly  examined  and  its  historical  connection 
demonstrated."  Prior  to  the  Reformation  the  ideas  of  religion  and 
the  contents  of  the  sacred  writings  were  familiarized  to  the  people 
mainly  through  art.  When  we  touch  on  the  relation  of  art  to 
morality,  we  may  notice  that  art  occupies  a  middle  place  between 
Nature  and  morality ;  while  it  is  neither,  it  cannot  be  false  to  either. 
Nature  is  filled  with  God.  Art's  chief  arena  is  the  soul  of  man,  so 
art  must  have  a  moral  and  religious  expression. 

If  one  says  that  the  chief  aim  of  art  is  to  be  true  to  Nature,  is  not 
the  cry  of  realism  that  goes  up  so  fiercely  in  certain  quarters  just 
this?  Reproduce  Nature?  Why?  Because  Nature  is  the  ultimate 
truth.  To  demand  fidelity  to  Nature,  then,  is  simply  demanding 
fidelity  to  truth.  If  this  fidelity  is  the  aim  and  mission  of  art,  the 
chief  end  of  art,  then,  must  be  moral.  Art  is  dead  without  moral- 
ity. For  there  is  no  such  thing  as  a  work  of  art  without  an  ethical 
element  in  it. 


ART    AND    PEOGRESS.  103 

And  still  further,  art  cannot  be  immoral  and  last,  because  it  is 
essentially  social.  Art  cannot  live  alone.  It  is  not  good  for  it  to  be 
alone.  Its  aim  is  to  please  all.  Hence  it  must  eliminate  whatever 
is  low,  ugly  or  bad.  For  it  is  the  essentially  good  alone  that  can 
afford  lasting  pleasure  to  the  multitude  of  humanity.  It  is  affirmed 
by  many  that  the  ends  of  art  are  not  good.  It  is  even  said  that  im- 
morality hangs  upon  her  garments;  that  great  art  centres  are 
places  of  abounding  vice  and  corruption  and  bad  government.  It 
may  be  replied  that  there  is  bad  art  as  well  as  bad  literature.  A 
gross  and  vulgar  picture  will  not  afford  moral  and  spiritual  uplift 
any  more  than  a  vulgar  and  indecent  book. 

There  are  elements  of  evil  that  abound  in  all  life.  But  because 
there  are  bad  books  in  the  world,  is  any  one  so  daft  as  to  advocate 
the  destruction  of  all  printing  presses,  and  allow  printing  to  become 
one  of  the  lost  arts?  No  one  is  so  foolish.  There  are  many  good 
things  in  the  world  whose  abuse  has  wrought  damage  and  destruc- 
tion. The  excessive  use  of  the  lawful  and  proper  may  work  harm. 
Shall  we  abandon  or  destroy  what  is  liable  to  be  used  improperly? 
What  would  become  of  society?  Chaos  would  tread  on  the  heels  of 
progress.  The  iconoclast  has  not  always  proved  the  world's  saviour. 
Far  from  it.  To  hear  the  warning  cries  and  acrid  criticisms  of 
some,  one  would  imagine  that  art  ought  to  be  cast  into  limbo  for  the 
salvation  of  the  world  and  in  the  interest  of  progress  and  virtue. 
But  is  art  at  fault  for  its  abuse?  Does  not  the  blame  lie  at  the  door 
of  a  defective  education,  that  makes  art  something  that  it  is  not? 
Is  not  the  remedy  in  Christian  education  that  will  lead  to  Christian 
art? — an  art  redeemed  and  sanctified  for  the  love  of  humanity. 

So  we  may  easily  trace  the  relation  of  art  to  worship.  It  is  a 
help,  teacher  and  inspirer  of  true  religion.  But  art  is  not  religion. 
The  attempt  to  make  it  so  would  be  as  abortive  as  the  attempt  to 
enthrone  impersonal  force  in  the  place  of  the  personal  Lord  God 
Almighty.  It  is  the  personality  of  the  Redeemer,  the  authoritative 
personal  will,  that  moves  to  obedience,  the  mother-heart  beating  in 
love  that  awakens  yearning  affection.  Impersonal  art  cannot  take 
the  place  of  transcendent  personality  in  worship.  One  breath  of 
trust  in  the  Cross  "towering  o'er  the  wrecks  of  time"  avails  more  for 
salvation  and  Godlike  character  than  multitudes  of  crucifixes,  gold- 
chased  and  fastened  by  the  aesthetic  taste  of  a  Benvenuto  Cellini. 

Thus  without  prejudice  we  may  see  the  real  relation  of  art  to 
religion.     What  has  been  the  case  in  the  past  has  been  demonstrated 


104  CHRISTENDOM. 

with  unmistaken  brilliancy  in  the  nineteenth  century.  A  good  illus- 
tration of  the  helpfulness  of  art  in  moral  and  religious  progress  is 
witnessed  in  the  times  of  the  Eeformation.  Painted  walls  took  the 
place  of  books  in  the  Middle  Ages.  Poetry  without  words,  speaking 
out  from  mural  decorations,  was  quite  as  effective  and  intelligible 
as  written  poems.  God's  temples,  filled  with  the  masterpieces  of 
sculpture  and  painting,  were  eye-speaking  manifestations  of  re- 
ligious ideas  and  symbols  of  the  devotional  spirit. 

Then  came  in  Luther  and  his  co-workers  the  resurrection  of  sim- 
ple Gospel  truths.  The  teachings  of  the  Eeformation  began  soon  to 
find  expression  in  art.  Diirer,  who  was  a  disciple  of  Luther,  in  his 
pictures  of  scenes  from  the  sacred  writings,  made  his  compositions 
at  once  picture  and  text.  They  were  full  of  the  spirit  and  life  of 
the  new  movement.  These  engravings  were  scattered  all  over  Ger- 
many by  the  thousands  of  copies,  and  reproduced  even  in  Italy.  And 
these  life-like,  speaking  pictures,  with  their  wealth  of  evangelical 
truth,  prepared  the  people  in  a  most  wonderful  way  for  Luther's 
translation  of  the  Bible. 

Has  art  in  its  broadest  sense  accomplished  anything  for  social 
well-being?  The  term  has  been  defined  as  a  state  of  life  which 
secures  or  tends  toward  happiness.  If  we  begin  by  thinking  along 
right  lines  it  must  be  evident  that  social  welfare  means  social  moral- 
ity. If  the  ethics  that  inspire  life  are  pure  and  the  laws  that  spring 
out  of  them  are  obeyed,  the  simple  joy  of  existence  will  be  supreme. 

The  century  reveals  that  art  has  relations  to  social  development. 
It  has  affected  society  in  four  different  ways.  It  may  be  truly  stated 
that  it  has  stimulated  the  ethical  nature ;  awakened  intellectual  activ- 
ity ;  drawn  out  the  slumbering  possibilities  of  man's  nature ;  aroused 
a  deep  religious  life  through  inculcating  the  ideas  of  worship,  im- 
mortality, love,  self-sacrifice  and  brotherhood,  by  touching  the  soul 
with  tongues  of  living  fire  at  the  contemplation  of  the  loftiest  efforts 
of  creative  skill.  Studied  sociologicall}',  we  must  consider  the  whole 
sweep  of  art  as  it  touches  with  its  divine  fervor  the  industries  and 
amenities  of  human  life.  It  is,  after  all,  in  the  last  analysis,  man's 
spiritual  nature  that  is  ever  expressing  itself  in  social  activities;  and 
here  art  comes  in  contact  with  social  well-being.  In  the  progress  of 
the  American  nation,  in  the  struggle  with  the  gigantic  forces  of 
Nature  and  the  effort  to  subdue  them  to  human  needs,  art  has  had 
positive  relation  to  the  development  of  character.  It  has  actually 
done  much  to  render  life  sweeter,  better,  broader. 


ART    AND    PROGRESS.  105 

In  no  other  century  has  art  held  such  close  relations  to  the  every- 
day life.  Physical  science  and  multiplied  industrial  inventions  have 
made  this  possible.  The  offspring  of  purely  creative  genius  is  not 
the  only  source  of  its  mighty  influence.  Industrial  art,  in  all  its 
strivings  for  the  beautiful  in  fabrics,  wall  hangings  and  furniture, 
has  had  an  ameliorating  influence  that  has  somewhat  of  the  moral 
and  religious  in  it.  So,  without  making  any  distinctions  as  to  de- 
grees of  artistic  merit,  or  attempting  to  classify  technically,  we  may 
say,  all  things  in  art  which  in  any  sense  stimulate  the  good  emotions 
are  beneficial  in  their  scope. 

Wright  affirms:  "There  is  nothing  progressive  that  does  not 
come  from  some  form  of  art,  or  from  some  expression  of  the  creative 
power."  The  simplest  forms  of  art  or  of  artistic  expression  may  be 
helpful. 

What  a  change  has  come  over  the  world  in  two  particulars,  in  re- 
spect to  art,  since  the  nineteenth  century  saw  its  birth !  Protestant- 
ism, especially  in  its  Puritan  simplicity  and  austerity,  repelled  the 
aid  of  art  as  accessory  in  church  architecture  and  worship.  Its 
symbolisms  were  shunned  as  tainted  with  Popery  and  the  devil. 
Now  Protestant  temples  of  worship  are  the  product  of  the  most 
artistic  skill.  Neither  are  painting  and  sculpture  avoided  as  aids  to 
the  devotional  spirit. 

The  resources  of  modern  invention  have  sent  the  works  of  the 
world-famous  masters  into  the  humblest  cottages  and  scattered  them 
broadcast  over  the  land. 

Half  a  century  ago.  Cardinal  Wiseman,  addressing  an  English 
company  of  eminent  artists,  spoke  of  the  wealth  of  power  and  influ- 
ence that  they  possessed  among  educated  people.  And  speaking 
reverently  of  the  old  masters,  he  announced:  "Nor  are  we  ever 
likely  to  see  their  marvelous  and  multiplied  works  within  easy  access 
of  the  people."  Only  ten  years  later  a  French  Jew,  traveling  on 
foot  from  city  to  city,  sold  fac-siraile  reproductions  of  sketches  of 
the  old  masters  termed  auto-types.  Then  came  photography,  and 
processes  of  quick  and  cheap  multiplication,  like  the  heliotype  pro- 
cess. So  invention  went  on.  Every  new  stroke  added  to  the  readi- 
ness and  perfection  with  which  the  art  treasures  of  the  world  have 
become  in  reality  the  property  of  all  humanity.  Now,  by  aid  of 
electricity  in  the  hands  of  such  men  as  Edison  and  Tesla,  one  need 
not  journey  away  from  his  own  village  to  have  the  wonders  of  the 
world  pass  in  life-like  procession  before  his  eyes. 


106  CHRISTENDOM. 

The  world's  masterpieces  in  painting,  sculpture,  architecture,  scat- 
tered broadcast  over  the  land,  are  helpful  in  lifting  a  man  above  the 
mere  drudgery  of  a  humdrum  existence.  The  poetry  and  beauty  of 
life  thus  come  within  our  ken.  The  weary  toiler  may  transport  him- 
self into  a  finer  atmosphere,  and  keep  company  with  the  great  artistic 
geniuses  of  all  time.  Such  influences  cannot  but  elevate.  By  such 
contact  men  and  women  are  taught  to  demand  that  in  their  home 
eurroundings  and  daily  life  there  shall  be  somewhat  to  refine,  elevate 
and  inspire.  So  it  is  a  vastly  good  thing  for  the  well-being  of  society 
that  one  result  of  inventive  art  has  been  to  bring  into  the  possession 
of  common  folk  these  beauties  of  the  world.  This  sort  of  education 
leads  people  to  insist  on  having  not  only  utility  but  beauty  and  artis- 
tic expression  in  the  ordinary  environment.  Formerly  in  our  archi- 
tecture, utility,  almost  to  the  exclusion  of  everything  else,  was  con- 
sulted. 

In  the  early  part  of  the  century  Dr.  Timothy  Dwight,  president 
of  Yale  College,  visited  New  York  City.  He  has  left  his  impressions 
of  its  buildings,  society,  and  public  works  in  his  "Travels."  He 
found  at  that  date  the  City  Hall  "the  most  superb  edifice"  in  Amer- 
ica, and  the  new  Presbyterian  Church  in  Wall  street  possessing  a 
handsome  front.  But  what  a  spirit  of  change  has  swept  over  the 
land  since  then !     It  is  as  true  of  art  as  of  letters — 

"A  little  learning  is  a  dangerous  thing; 
Drink  deep,  or  taste  not  the  Pierian  spring." 

Now  the  taste  for  nobler  things  has  become  so  widespread  in  this 
land  that  it  is  the  aesthetic  spirit  that  demands  that  our  libraries, 
public  halls,  colleges  and  churches  shall  be  works  of  art ;  and  under 
this  regime  the  hideous  effects  of  mere  striving  for  utility  are  pass- 
ing away.  Amid  deformities  innumerable  art  is  beginning  to  lift 
its  majestic  and  tranquil  presence  among  us.  We  have  the  Wash- 
ington Monument  and  have  had  the  Naval  Arch  in  New  York,  the 
latter  some  day,  we  trust,  to  be  done  in  enduring  bronze  or  stone; 
such  models  as  the  Boston  Public  Library,  the  Corcoran  Art  Gal- 
lery, and  that  chef  d'oeuvre  of  American  architecture,  the  Con- 
gressional Library  at  Washington.  So  everywhere  in  our  higher 
Bchools  and  colleges  the  effort  is  made  to  surround  the  pupils 
with  the  EBsthetic  and  refining.  Environment  is  made  to  include 
those  elements  of  culture  that  appeal  to  the  artistic  sensibilities 


ART    AND    PROGRESS.  107 

and  awaken  purity  of  taste.  It  was  argued,  however,  by  some, 
that  to  take  young  girls  out  of  the  ordinary  American  home,  plain  as 
it  often  must  be,  and  send  them  to  such  institutions  as  Wellesley 
College,  where  they  could  spend  four  years  amid  the  creations  of  art 
and  the  refinements  of  creative  genius,  would  work  a  positive  injury 
in  making  such  people  discontented  with  their  lot,  and  unhappy  be- 
cause they  could  not  always  have  just  such  elevated  surroundings. 
But  the  real  result  has  been  that  graduates  of  these  schools  have 
taken  the  artistic  spirit  with  them,  and  to  the  extent  of  their  ability 
made  their  surroundings  in  humbler  spheres  conform  to  their  ar- 
tistic impulses.  Low  discontent  has  been  changed  into  noble  emula- 
tion. To  such  an  extent,  under  the  fostering  care  of  religion,  has 
the  requirement  for  an  inner  and  outward  beauty  of  life  spread  that 
we  may  see  its  efPects  everywhere. 

Prof.  A.  D.  F.  Hamlin,  in  "The  Forum"  for  July,  1901,  aptly 
says:  "The  century  which  has  recently  closed  was  preeminent  for 
its  marvelous  widening  of  man's  intellectual  horizons  and  for  its 
summoning  of  the  multitude  to  share  in  this  beneficent  enlargement 
of  the  human  outlook.  The  summits  of  learning  are  no  longer 
walled  about  by  insurmountable  barriers. 

*'Until  lately,  however,  our  people  have  been  too  absorbed  in  their 
vast  industrial  activities  and  the  solution  of  the  grave  political  and 
social  problems  of  their  destiny  to  give  much  thought  to  the  finer 
amenities  of  life.  Only  in  recent  years  have  they  begun  to  discover 
the  extent  of  their  artistic  destitution  and  to  realize  the  immaturity 
of  many  features  of  the  national  life.  This  consciousness,  once 
awakened,  has  aroused  a  new  interest  in  artistic  and  historical 
studies.  Yet,  with  all  the  progress  of  the  last  quarter  of  a  century,  it 
is  surprising  to  note  how  many  people  of  fair  education  think  of  art 
as  a  wholly  extraneous  thing,  which  it  is  quite  permissible  to  ignore. 
People  who  entertain  such  ideas  as  these  have  had  for  the  most  part 
no  opportunity  to  learn  what  art  really  is.  They  have  seldom  seen 
a  beautiful  building,  or  looked  upon  a  fine  picture,  or  stood  before  a 
noble  statue.  Their  lives  and  surroundings  have  been  barren  of 
beauty.  Through  lack  of  occasion  for  exercise,  and  by  reason  of 
mental  pre-occupation  with  practical,  social,  religious,  political,  and 
other  interests,  their  aesthetic  sensibilities  have  become  atrophied. 
Given  sufficient  contact  with  beautiful  things,  however,  and  these 
aesthetic  capacities  spring  into  life  like  flowers  in  the  sun." 

The  cry  of  the  wage-worker  of  to-day  is  not  merely  for  the  bare 


108  CHRISTENDOM. 

necessities  of  physical  living.  His  demand  does  not  stop  at  give  me 
better  shoes,  better  clothes,  better  food,  but  it  rises  into  the  files  of 
those  spiritualizing  influences  that  are  superior  to  the  craving  of  a 
paltry  animal  existence. 

When  Frederick  Arnold  was  writing  the  life  of  F.  W.  Robertson, 
he  went  to  Brighton  to  talk  with  Robertson's  friends,  to  find  inci- 
dents for  his  biography.  Among  other  places  he  went  to  a  book- 
seller's shop,  and  learned  that  the  proprietor  had  been  a  constant 
attendant  upon  Robertson's  ministry  and  had  in  his  parlor  a  picture 
of  the  great  preacher.  The  bookseller  said  to  Mr.  Arnold :  "Do  you 
see  that  picture  ?  Whenever  I  am  tempted  to  do  a  mean  thing  I  run 
back  here  and  look  at  it.  Then  I  cannot  do  the  mean  thing.  When- 
ever I  feel  afraid  of  some  difficulty  or  some  obstacle,  I  come  and  look 
into  those  eyes,  and  I  go  out  strong  for  my  struggle." 

Man  wants  to  realize  that  his  intellectual  and  spiritual  nature  is 
being  nourished  and  strengthened.  He  sees  the  ideals  and  possibili- 
ties all  around  him  and  is  eager,  in  some  measure  at  least,  to  make 
his  life  conform  to  them.  Hence  the  demand,  not  only  for  utility, 
but  for  beauty. 

The  workman  has  been  educated  and  his  aesthetic  perceptions  de- 
veloped so  that  in  the  matter  of  a  kitchen  stove,  if  you  please,  a 
mere  ugly  utility  must  give  way  to  something  that  shall  not  be  a 
glaring  offence  against  good  taste.  For  this  reason,  we  were  told,  not 
long  since,  by  a  writer  on  social  themes,  that  a  certain  stove  manu- 
facturer gave  a  prominent  sculptor  $5,000  to  perfect  for  him  a  de- 
sign for  kitchen  stoves  that  would  embody  the  elements  of  grace  and 
beauty.  That  manufacturer  caught  the  spirit  of  progress  that 
breathes  in  the  century.  He  knew  that  people  were  educated  enough 
to  appreciate  such  things  and  to  recompense  him  for  his  outlay. 

In  England,  more  than  in  this  country,  the  poster  is  becoming  a 
fine-art  work.     The  highest  talent  is  employed  in  its  production. 

If  men  live  long  in  an  atmosphere  that  is  artistic  and  refined, 
they  must  naturally  come  to  have  a  taste  for  such  things,  and  be  ill  at 
ease  and  unhappy  when  deprived  of  them.  But  it  may  be  argued.  Is 
not  this  very  demand  for  higher  things  causing  the  discontent  and 
unrest  characteristic  of  our  times?  If  by  the  use  of  the  word  dis- 
content one  means  that  a  man  is  dissatisfied  with  himself  and  his 
surrouDdings,  and  seeks  to  make  himself  better  and  to  improve  his 
opportunities,  this  is  the  way  Nature  and  religion,  in  its  highest 
expression  in  Christianity,  have  ordained  to  secure  progress.     If  it 


AKT    AND    PROGRESS.  109 

were  not  for  reasonable  discontent  the  world  would  be  nothing  short 
of  a  stagnant  pool.  The  desire  for  better  things  has  in  itself  created 
new  industries.  Men  say  we  should  improve  our  lives  in  this  direc- 
tion. New  articles  to  meet  the  demand  are  invented.  Soon  a  new 
child  of  industry  is  born.  Work  begets  work,  and  the  general  weal 
is  improved  to  some  extent. 

Dr.  Carroll  Wright  tells  of  a  conversation  he  had  with  Pullman 
after  his  new  town  had  been  in  operation  for  some  time.  "It  has 
been  my  aim,"  he  said,  "to  elevate  the  working  people.  I  have  pro- 
vided refined  and  artistic  surroundings  for  their  homes — parks, 
fountains,  gardens,  public  libraries,  in  short,  everything  that  was 
possible  within  the  scope  of  my  scheme,  that  might  prove  helpful  for 
the  moral,  intellectual  and  aesthetic  betterment  of  the  people." 
"Has  the  plan  worked  ?"  asked  his  listener.  "Do  improved  surround- 
ings really  help  to  elevate  taste  and  character  ?  Have  the  rough  and 
ill-mannered  been  benefited?"  "I  have  noticed  this,"  he  replied — 
"when  people  move  into  Pullman  with  broken,  shabby  and  ill-kept 
furniture,  influenced  by  their  environment  they  begin  to  see  how 
incongTuous  it  is.  The  broken  and  ugly  stuff  gradually  disappears, 
and  the  dwelling  by  and  by  is  furnished  with  the  good  taste  prevalent 
in  the  neighborhood." 

The  time  has  passed  for  the  political  economist  to  reckon  as 
wealth  only  material  goods,  or  what  can  be  actually  expressed  in  a 
dollar-and-cent  valuation.  A  young  American  college  man  has  led 
the  way  into  a  wider  and  truer  generalization.  Intellectual  accom- 
plishments are  wealth.  Character  in  its  spiritual  essence  is  wealth. 
The  value  of  a  collection  of  art  works  to  the  community  cannot  be 
expressed  in  the  figures  that  that  number  of  fine-art  Avorks  will 
bring  in  the  market  when  exposed  for  sale  to  the  highest  bidder. 
The  spiritualizing  and  refining  influence  on  the  community  provok- 
ing to  higher  living,  and  inciting  demands  that  find  expression  in 
progress,  is  reflected  in  the  creation  of  new  industries.  More  brains 
and  hands  are  kept  busy  to  gratify  the  exalted  taste  for  something 
better,  and  this  is  again  helpful  in  the  better  moral  tone  of  society. 

How  foolish  to  say  that  the  aesthetic  perceptions  do  not  produce 
anything  that  can  be  of  value  to  social  well-being!  No  shallow 
thinking  can  perceive  the  thousand  ways  in  which  they  minister  to 
human  good.  To  the  extent  that  public  art  becomes  an  educator,  it 
is  contributory  to  the  well-being  of  the  community.  What  the  poor 
man  cannot  buy  for  himself  he  yet  may  be  joint  possessor  of  as  a 


110  CHRISTENDOM. 

citizen  of  the  state.  The  best  works  of  the  best  masters  thus  come 
to  be  public  property.  And  one  marked  tendency  of  the  age  is  to 
keep  every  good  thing  easy  of  access  to  the  people  at  all  times.  Let 
the  good  things  be  open  all  the  while,  and  more  and  more,  and  let 
the  bad  things  be  closed.  This  is  good  philosophy  and  good  common 
sense  as  well.  The  public  mind  seems  to  be  directed  along  this 
wholesome  line  of  thinking  with  increasing  earnestness. 

The  popular  verdict  appears  to  be  that  there  is  no  time  too  good 
in  which  to  cultivate  those  finer  tastes  whose  bent  is  in  the  direction 
of  refinement,  spirituality  and  religion.  The  divinity  of  beauty 
appeals  to  the  divinity  that  is  in  the  souls  of  men.  It  is  this  finer 
sense  that  has  in  it  the  very  essence  of  worship.  It  is  this  that  leads 
a  man  to  ask,  Whence  comes  all  this  spiritual  beauty  and  longing  for 
betterment?  So  beauty  of  outward  form  leads  up  to  that  temple 
wherein  dwells  the  Author  of  all  loveliness.  Hence  it  is  a  good 
thing  that  our  museums  and  treasures  of  art  and  literature  be  ac- 
cessible to  the  masses  every  day  in  the  year.  It  is  acknowledged 
that  man's  latent  moral  and  spiritual  nature  needs  all  the  help  it 
can  get.  The  struggle  between  the  good  and  the  bad  is  so  intense 
that  no  wise  efforts  to  present  to  him  the  highest  ideals  ought  to  be 
scouted  as  unprofitable.  Thus  art  has  been  a  help  to  religion  and  a 
direct  factor  in  social  progress. 

Though  past  ages  have  been  such  rich  treasure  houses  of  art  and 
poetry,  the  direct  offspring  of  religion,  we  observe  that  the  nineteenth 
century  has  been  far  from  being  a  barren  period  in  this  regard. 
Who  can  estimate  the  direct  value  to  religious  growth  and  training 
that  the  Scriptural  studies  of  our  great  artists  have  been.  The 
stained-glass  window  has  told  its  story  to  the  eye  and  so  carried  some 
loving  and  holy  message  to  the  heart  that  has  ripened  in  loving 
deed  and  divine  character. 

For  ground  glass,  or  unsightly  windows,  where  attempt  at  coloring 
was  simply  hideous,  all  over  our  land,  we  have  the  harmonious  and 
finished  work  of  such  artists  as  Tiffany,  LeFarge  or  Wilson,  not  to 
mention  a  host  of  others  wlio  have  done  more  or  less  creditable  work. 

Among  the  many  things  that  have  been  done  by  artists  whose 
themes,  in  cheap,  yet  praiseworthy  prints,  have  been  the  constant 
delight  of  youth  and  age,  may  be  mentioned  certain  notable  creations 
like  the  nineteenth  century  art  serials  of  the  life  of  Christ.  Re- 
ligious art  in  this  age  has  assumed  the  form  of  illustrations  of  Bible 
scenes  and  incidents.     Scarcely  a  scene  or  minor  incident  in  all  the 


ART    AND    PROGRESS.  Ill 

Bible  story  that  has  not  been  the  inspiration  of  some  art  creation. 
Among  those  that  should  come  within  the  scope  of  this  review  are 
the  works  of  Johann  Frederich  Overbeck,  who  produced,  from  1843 
to  1853,  some  forty  compositions.  His  work  has  in  it  much  of  the 
spiritual  simplicity  of  Fra  Angelico^.  Overbeck  admired  very  much 
the  early  Tuscans,  and  caught  much  of  their  spirit.  Gustave  Dore 
is  the  best-known  Bible  illustrator  of  our  time.  With  all  his  pecu- 
liarities his  attitude  toward  religion  and  the  person  of  the  Redeemer 
was  one  of  reverence.  His  popularity  among  the  masses  may  be 
from  his  intense  dramatic  power,  which  now  and  again  verged  on 
the  theatrical.  His  illustrated  Bible,  as  first  published  in  1865, 
contained  two  hundred  and  thirty  drawings.  It  was  received  with 
such  enthusiasm  that  it  some  time  since  reached  its  third  edition. 
It  would  be  hard  to  estimate  the  multitudes  of  Christian  folk  that 
have  received  their  conception  of  Bible  life  and  story  from  his  skilful 
pencil. 

Another  Bible  delineator,  not  so  well  known,  is  Alexandre  Bida. 
His  "Les  Saints  Evangeles"  was  published  in  1873.  The  text  of 
the  four  evangelists  was  enriched  by  him  with  one  hundred  and 
twenty-eight  etchings.  Bida  brought  to  his  work  a  truth  and  genius 
that  made  his  Christ  reverent,  refined,  dignified,  if  not  strong. 

The  century  has  produced  some  pictures  in  the  realm  of  sacred 
art  destined  to  live.  The  last  of  a  series  that  we  will  mention  here 
are  the  works  of  James  Tissot.  He  labored  for  ten  years  in  produc- 
ing his  New  Testament  illustrations,  from  1886  to  1896.  They 
number  three  hundred  and  fifty  aquarelles  and  a  great  many  pen 
drawings.  His  first  exhibition  was  given  in  Paris  in  1894.  In  1887 
he  had  already  issued  lithographs  illustrating  texts  of  Scripture  in 
important  full-page  plates.  Tissot's  distinct  purpose,  with  which  he 
set  out  under  the  spell  of  a  high  religious  enthusiasm,  was  to  re- 
construct the  Palestine  of  the  Christian  era.  He  seeks  to  revive 
a  picture  of  the  Jerusalem  of  the  Jews  and  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth. 
His  effort  is  to  bring  back  the  scenes  that  Jesus  really  knew.  His 
are  the  only  series  of  pictures  attempting  to  be  strictly  archaeological 
in  accuracy  of  detail.  That  his  efforts  have  been  cro\vned  with  a 
certain  amount  of  success,  thousands  bear  testimony.  They  certain- 
ly have  attained  to  the  remarkably  picturesque.  Effective  they  are 
in  teaching  the  great  lessons  the  artist  has  set  before  his  genius. 
Their  mission  is  the  exaltation  of  religion.  Its  lessons  they  vividly 
convey  to  mind  and  heart.     If  the  figure  of  the  Christ  that  mores 


112  CHRISTENDOM. 

through  them  is  not  as  commanding  a  Presence  as  we  have  been 
taught  by  former  masters  to  look  for  in  the  divine  Personality  that 
moves  through  sacred  art,  but  simply  one  of  a  company  portrayed 
with  vivid  Oriental  realism,  we  may  remember  that  the  artist  has 
sought  to  bring  back  to  us  the  Son  of  Man  as  he  really  was  in  the 
days  of  His  ministry  in  the  flesh,  and  not  as  ages  of  adoring  wor- 
shippers have  imagined  that  He  ought  to  be  to  claim  humanity's 
paramount  love,  reverence  and  worship. 

It  is  this  exaltation  of  religious  themes  in  art  that  has  inspired 
man  with  religious  sentiments.  In  a  world  of  sin,  moral  and  re- 
ligious beauty  has  been  uplifted.  By  this  we  are  not  saying  that  art 
is  to  save  a  world  of  sin.  It  takes  a  mighty  personality  to  do  that. 
It  takes  a  blood-red  cross,  and  righteousness  and  love  triumphing 
in  the  light  of  God.  But  art  may  be  the  handmaid  of  religion,  as 
it  is  certainly  a  formative  power  in  social  progress.  To  accomplish 
great  results  the  latent  assthetic  taste  must  be  cultivated,  however, 
just  as  the  slumbering  moral  nature  must  be  awakened.  The  ugly 
and  commonplace  look  out  upon  every  hand.  They  seek  to  mar 
hum.an  life  and  drag  it  in  the  mire.  By  artistic  surroundings  we 
may  hope  to  counteract  the  dangers  of  ugliness,  and  by  the  Gospel 
of  Beauty  make  moral  deformity  hateful.  Most  men  of  our  time 
feel  that  there  is  some  Power  above  us  that  has  brought  into  being 
all  the  loveliness  that  crowds  in  countless  forms  Nature's  atelier. 
Coleridge  was  inspired  with  something  more  than  poetic  af- 
flatus when  ho  sang  in  the  Valley  of  Chamouni,  gazing  upon  the 
wonders  of  the  Alps : 

"Who  made  j'ou  glorious  as  the  gates  of  Heaven, 
Beneath  the  keen,  full  moon?    Who  bade  the  sun 
Clothe  you  with  rainbows?    Who.  with  living  flowers 
Of  loveliest  blue,  spread  garlands  at  your  feet? 
God,  let  the  torrents,  like  a  shout  of  nations. 
Answer,  and  let  the  ice  plains  echo  'God.'  " 

God  is  a  God  of  beauty.  Love,  truth  and  goodness  are  beautiful. 
They  demand  beautiful  settings  for  their  own  perfection  of  being. 
The  creation  of  a  taste  for  the  beautiful,  education  in  art,  means 
the  awakening  in  the  soul  of  a  sense  of  beauty  that  lifts  it  to  an 
appreciation  of  moral  and  spiritual  beauty  as  well.  Then,  one  step 
further,  comes  an  acknowledgment  of  Him  who  is  the  Author  of  it 
all. 


AET    AND    PROGEESS. 


113 


Our  homes  and  public  buildings,  our  streets  and  parks,  ought  to 
be  made  the  embodiment  of  beauty.  Have  we  not  here  the  elements 
for  a  crusade  against  the  hideous  deformities  that  abound  in  so 
many  of  our  American  communities?  Ghastly  ugliness  looks  out 
on  the  right  hand  and  left,  shocking  all  budding  aesthetic  taste. 
What  shall  we  say  of  the  effect  of  such  things  on  social  well-being 
in  our  towns  and  cities  ?  Filthy  streets,  unseemly  collections  of  cast- 
off  material  of  all  sorts  and  in  all  conditions  of  degeneration,  un- 
sightly telegraph  poles,  fences  and  rocks,  with  the  abomination  of 
Satanic  advertising  in  all  stages  of  putrefaction,  and  ill-shapen, 
crumbling  buildings,  offending  every  rule  of  architecture — what 
purpose  do  such  as  these  serve  but  to  lower  the  moral  tone  and  blunt 
the  finer  sensibilities?  Men  who  live  in  dirt  and  filth,  whose  daily 
vision  is  feasted  on  the  ugly  and  misshapen,  will  hardly  be  moved 
by  sentiments  of  brotherhood,  or  by  a  religion  of  love,  good-will  and 
beauty. 


SOME  OF  THE  PAST  CENTURY'S 
RELIGIOUS  LEADERS,* 


ClTARLB^S    SiMEOJV.  JAMES   MARTINEAU. 

FrIEDRICH    SCHLEIERMACirER.  ALBRECHT  RITSCHL. 

Horace  Bushnell.  Phillips  Brooks. 

DwiGiiT  L.  Moody. 


[When  the  man  dies,  all  life's  scaffolding  falls  away.  Then  only  the  name 
epitomizing  the  life  remains.  For  it  stirs  our  wonder  that  names  alone  sur- 
vive the  shock  of  time.  Cities  become  heaps  and  empires  ruins,  bronze 
tables  and  marble  monuments  are  ploughed  down  in  dust,  the  seven  wonders 
of  the  world  perish,  but  not  the  names  of  their  creators.  The  marble  of  the 
Acropolis  wastes,  but  Phidias'  name  abides.  God  has  ordained  the  names  of 
great  men  as  the  endui'ing  monuments  of  civilization. 

ISIost  wondrous,  that  the  prophetic  eye,  searching  out  the  candidate  for 
universal  fame,  should  turn  to  a  captive  nation,  to  a  degraded  province,  to  a 
village  into  which  had  run  all  the  slime  of  creation,  to  an  obscure  peasant's 
cottage,  and  therefrom  select  an  unschooled  youth,  born  into  poverty,  bound 
to  coarsest  labor,  doomed  to  thirty  years  of  obscurity,  scorned  by  rulers,  de- 
spised by  priests,  mobbed  by  common  people,  by  all  counted  traitorous  to  his 
country  and  religion,  in  death  stigmatized  by  a  method  of  execution  reserved 
for  slaves  and  convicts. 

Our  wonder  grows  apace  when  we  remember  that  he  wrote  no  book,  no 
poem,  no  drama,  no  philosophy ;  invented  no  tool  or  instrument ;  fashioned  no 
law  or  institution ;  discovered  no  medicine  or  remedy ;  outlined  no  philoso- 
phy of  mind  or  body ;  contributed  nothing  to  geology  or  astronomy ;  but  stood 
at  the  end  of  his  brief  career,  doomed  and  deserted,  solitary  and  silent, 
utterly  helpless,  fronting  a  shameless  trial  and  a  pitiless  execution.  In 
that  hour  none  po  poor  as  to  ilo  him  reverence.  And  yet  could  some  magician 
have  touched  men's  eyes,  they  would  have  seen  that  no  power  in  heaven  and 
no  force  on  earth  for  majesty  and  productiveness  could  equal  or  match  this 
ci'owned  sufferer  whoso  name  was  to  be  "Wonderful."  The  ages  have  come 
and  gone ;  let  us  hasten  to  confess  that  the  carpenter's  son  hath  lifted  the 
gates  of  empires  off  their  hinges  and  turned  the  stream  of  the  centuries  out 
of  their  channels.  His  spirit  hath  leavened  all  literature;  He  has  made  laws 
just,  governments  humane,  manners  gentle,  even  cold  marble  warm ;  He  re- 
fined art  by  new  and  divine  themes,  shaped  those  cathedrals  called  "frozen 
prayers,"  led  scientists  to  dedicate  their  books  and  discoveries  to  Him,  and  so 
glorified  an  instrument  of  torture  as  that  the  very  queen  among  beautiful 
women  seeks  to  enhance  her  loveliness  by  hanging  His  cross  about  her  neck, 
while  new  inventions  and  institutions  seem  but  letters  in  His  storied  speech. 

*  The  names  are  arranged  chronologically. 

114 


PAST  CENTURY'S  RELIGIOUS  LEADERS.  115 

To-day  His  birthday  alone  is  celebrated  by  all  the  nations.  All  peoples  and 
tribes  claim  Him.  He  seems  supremely  great.  None  hath  arisen  to  dispute 
His  throne.  Plato  divides  honors  with  Aristotle,  Bacon  walks  arm  in  arm 
with  Newton,  Napoleon  does  not  monopolize  the  admiration  of  soldiers.  In 
poetry,  music,  art,  and  practical  life,  universal  supremacy  is  unknown.  But 
Jesus  Christ  is  so  opulent  in  His  gifts,  so  transcendent  in  his  words  and 
works,  so  unique  in  His  life  and  death,  that  He  receives  universal  honors. 
His  name  eclipses  other  names  as  the  noonday  sun  obliterates  by  very  excess 
of  light. — Newell  Dwight  Hillis ;  "The  Influence  of  Christ  in  Modern  Life;" 
pp.  92-94.— Ed.  1 

*  *  * 

CHARLES  SIMEON :    Samuel  Macauley  Jackson,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

Among  the  great  religious  leaders  of  the  first  half  of  the  nine- 
teenth centuiT  in  England  and  America,  there  is  surely  to  be  reck- 
oned Charles  Simeon.  His  title  to  fame  is  made  in  what  is  known 
as  the  "Evangelical"  movement.  This  movement  really  dates  from 
the  time  of  Wesley  and  Whitefield,  but  the  followers  of  those  revival 
preachers  had  left  the  Church  of  England,  and  left  it  very  dead.  It 
was  Simeon's  work  to  reanimate  it  and  to  deepen  the  spiritual  life 
not  only  of  the  members  of  the  Established  Church,  but  as  his  influ- 
ence crossed  the  Atlantic,  also  of  that  of  the  Protestant  Episco- 
pal Church  in  this  country.  He  also  had  an  important  bearing 
upon  the  church  life  of  other  denominations,  and  so,  although  the 
Evangelical  movement  as  such  is  now  a  matter  of  history,  we  owe  a 
great  debt  to  the  man  who  transformed  the  clerical  life  in  his  own 
church  and  outside  of  it. 

Charles  Simeon  was  born  at  Reading,  in  England,  on  the  24th  of 
September,  1758.  His  early  training  was  not  pious,  but  formally 
religious.  His  family  belonged  to  the  gentry  and  were  wealthy,  and 
so  were  part  of  the  Establishment  in  full  commimion.  He  was  sent 
to  Eton  and  afterward  to  Cambridge,  where  his  life  was  that  of  a  boy 
and  young  man  of  his  class.  He  himself  confesses  to  having  lived 
upon  a  low  plane ;  sometimes  indulging  too  freely  in  wine,  but 
compared  to  his  associates,  his  life  was  quite  decent.  It  was  not  until 
1781  that  his  conversion  took  place,  and  this  was  of  such  a  thorough 
character  that  he  never  relapsed  into  his  former  mode  of  life,  but  was 
from  that  hour  an  Evangelical  Christian  of  the  most  pronounced 
type.  He  entered  the  ministry,  and  through  the  influence  of  his 
father  and  of  King's  College,  of  which  he  was  a  Fellow,  he  obtained 
the  very  desirable  living  of  Holy  Trinity,  right  in  the  heart  of  Cam- 
bridge, and  remained  to  his  death  its  rector.     His  early  experiences 


116  CHRISTENDOM. 

in  the  church  were  rather  remarkable  and  certainly  very  unpleasant. 
His  congregation  did  not  want  him,  but  somebody  else  who  was 
not  appointed  by  the  patrons,  and  as  in  those  days  it  was  the  custom 
to  put  locks  upon  pew  doors,  they  adopted  the  efficacious  device  of 
locking  the  doors  so  that  nobody  should  be  seated  in  the  church. 
Simeon  endeavored  to  meet  this  move  by  putting  settees  in  the  aisles. 
They  then  went  further  and  locked  the  doors  of  the  church,  and  he 
had  to  meet  this  move  by  hiring  a  hall  in  the  neighborhood  of  the 
church.  This  opposition  also  showed  itself  in  personal  forms.  He 
was  jeered  at  on  the  streets  and  his  assistants  came  in  for  the  same 
treatment.  All  of  which  conduct  strikes  us  now  as  being  the  more 
extraordinary  when  we  learn  that  Simeon  was  a  very  popular 
preacher  and  his  services  were  in  constant  demand  outside  of  his 
own  church.  The  opposition  seems  to  have  been  based  simply  upon 
resentment  of  the  snub  which  the  congregation  had  received  and  not 
to  have  been  due  to  any  very  violent  objection  to  the  matter  of  his 
preaching.  But  it  was  so  bitter  that  at  first  he  was  afraid  to  visit 
his  congregation,  and  it  caused  him  for  years  a  great  deal  of  suffer- 
ing. He  lived  it  down,  and  after  a  while  he  was  welcomed  by  them 
and  they  were  proud  of  his  connection  with  them. 

He  was  an  indefatigable  preacher,  a  great  Bible  student,  a  born 
son  of  consolation,  a  man  of  most  thorough  consecration  to  his 
church,  a  man  to  whom  religion  was  not  a  part  of  life  but  the  whole 
of  life — the  great  subject  of  conversation  and  of  private  thinking. 
He  also  had  the  true  missionary  Instinct  to  impart  these  views  to 
others,  and  so  by  means  of  his  university  lectures,  unpublished  and 
published  sermons,  innumerable  letters,  and  by  means  of  weekly 
gatherings  in  his  rooms,  which  he  called  "conversation  parties,"  but 
the  topic  of  which  was  always  and  only  religion,  he  moulded  the 
university  life  and  educated  large  numbers  of  ministers  in  his  way 
of  thinking. 

His  theology  would  be  considered  in  this  day  narrow  and  ratlier 
unreal.  It  has  been  described  by  Rev.  Dr.  A.  V.  G.  Allen,  in  his 
biography  of  Phillips  Brooks,  as  that  phase  of  religious  thinking 
which  presented  the  Gospel  of  Christ  "as  consisting  in  deliverance 
from  sin  and  penalty  through  the  atonement  upon  the  cross.  It  was 
not  primarily  an  intellectual  movement,  whose  aim  was  the  adjust- 
ment of  theological  tenets,  but  rather  an  intensely  practical  purpose. 
Its  adherents  alike  agreed  in  teaching  the  necessity  of  conversion 
as  the  first  step  in  the  religious  life.     It  enforced  also  the  cultus  of 


PAST  CENTURY'S  RELIGIOUS  LEADERS.  117 

an  inward  experience  of  the  Divine  life  of  the  soul,  magnifying  the 
person  of  Christ  as  the  motive  power  of  Christian  development, 
through  conscious  union  with  whom  alone  could  salvation  be  se- 
cured." 

In  incessant  preaching  and  lecturing,  letter  writing  and  talking 
upon  the  subject  of  religion,  Charles  Simeon  passed  his  days,  and 
when  he  died  on  the  13th  of  November,  1836,  the  event  produced  a 
world-wide  sorrow.  Those  preachers  at  home  and  abroad,  those  pri- 
vate persons  whose  lives  he  had  affected,  rejoiced  in  the  great  work 
he  had  done,  while  mourning  over  his  departure.  He  had  surely  well 
served  the  religious  world  and  fell  asleep  at  last  in  the  sure  hope  of 
immortality. 


FRIEDRICH  SCHLEIERMACHER:    Prof.  Samuel  Macadley 
jACKSOisr,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

As  A  MAN  of  altogether  different  type,  but  of  no  less  usefulness 
in  his  lifetime,  and  of  a  far  more  likely  permanent  worldly  fame,  was 
Friedrich  Ernst  Daniel  Schleiermacher.  The  ordinary  English 
reader  has  probably  as  little  acquaintance  with  his  name  as  with  the 
former's,  but  every  student  of  theology  and  of  philosophy  and  of 
German  history  of  the  modern  period  knows  at  least  that  Schleier- 
macher was  a  person  of  consequence.  He  was  born  at  Breslau  on 
the  21st  of  November,  1768.  His  father  was  an  army  chaplain  and 
connected  with  the  Reformed  Church.  He  seems  to  have  been  a  very 
good  man,  but  not  to  have  known  what  to  do  with  a  son  who  was  a 
genius.  However,  he  sent  him  to  be  educated  by  the  Moravians,  and 
there  Schleiermacher  received  his  first  religious  impressions.  He 
turned  to  God  as  naturally  as  the  flowers  turn  toward  the  sun,  but 
he  did  not  in  his  mature  years  advocate  Moravian  ideas.  On  the 
contrary,  he  said  a  great  many  things  which  would  hav'e  shocked  the 
simple  people  among  whom  he  had  lived.  Like  many  another  ear- 
nest man  the  idea  of  God  first  took  on  the  form  of  Pantheism,  and 
so  when,  after  passing  through  the  University  of  Halle,  and  having 
an  experience  of  a  private  tutor,  he  came  to  Berlin  in  1796  as  a 
preacher,  he  held  forth  the  idea  that  God  is  not  only  everywhere,  but 
that  man  is  in  some  sense  an  embodiment  of  God. 

Schleiermacher  was  at  that  time  a  highly  educated,  independent, 
fearless  young  man,  living  in  the  society  of  scholars  and  poets  and 


118  CHRISTENDOM. 

philosophers — and,  in  fact,  the  best  literary  set  of  Berlin ;  but  though 
with  them  he  was  not  of  them,  because  he  was  gazing  upward,  for  to 
his  soul  had  come  the  voice  of  God,  while  the  eyes  of  the  company 
were  fastened  upon  the  ground.  The  fire  of  zeal  to  describe  the 
heavenly  vision  burnt  in  his  bones,  and  in  1799  he  delivered  those 
remarkable  "Speeches  upon  Eeligion"  which  are  the  basis  of  his 
fame  and  the  best  piece  of  work  he  was  destined  to  do.  The  object 
of  these  speeches  is  to  present  the  claim  of  God  upon  the  edu- 
cated man.  Their  very  first  words  show  precisely  the  situation.  He 
says :  "It  may  be  an  unexpected  and  even  a  marvelous  undertaking 
that  any  one  should  still  venture  to  demand  from  the  very  class  that 
have  raised  themselves  above  the  vulgar,  and  are  saturated  with  the 
wisdom  of  the  centuries,  attention  for  a  subject  so  entirely  neglected 
by  them.  And  I  confess  that  I  am  aware  of  nothing  that  promises 
any  easy  success,  whether  it  be  in  the  winning  for  my  efforts  your 
approval,  or  in  the  more  difficult  and  more  desirable  task  of  instilling 
into  you  my  thought  and  inspiring  you  for  my  subject."  As  we  look 
back  upon  those  speeches  through  the  vista  of  one  hundred  years  we 
find  that  their  importance  has  not  been  lost.  They  are  reprinted  and 
read  at  the  present  time,  and  only  so  recently  as  1893  an  English 
translation  of  them  appeared.  As  to  their  estimation  by  his  own 
generation  the  testimony  of  Neander  may  be  accepted.  He  says: 
"Whosoever  participated  in  the  religious  movements  at  the  beginning 
of  the  nineteenth  century  will  recognize  how  a  pantheistic  enthu- 
siasm can  be  for  many  a  thoughtful  and  profound  spirit  a  starting 
point  for  faith  in  the  Gospel.  Specially  important,  as  a  stepping 
stone  to  the  theological  and  religious  development,  was  the  appear- 
ance of  the  'Speeches  on  Eeligion'  by  the  late  Schleiermacher.  This 
book  was  the  occasion  of  a  great  revival  and  mighty  stirring  of 
spirits.  Men  of  the  older  generation,  adherents  of  the  ancient 
Christian  supernatural  ism  or  earnest  Eationalists,  whose  living  faith 
in  a  God  above  the  world  and  a  life  beyond  was  a  relic  of  it,  rejected 
the  pantheistic  elements  in  the  book  with  anger  and  detestation.  But 
those  who  were  then  among  the  rising  generation  know  with  what 
might  this  book,  that  testified  in  youthful  enthusiasm  of  the  neg- 
lected religious  elements  in  human  nature,  wrought  upon  the  heart. 
In  opposition  to  one-sided  intellectualism,  it  was  of  the  greatest 
importance  that  the  might  of  religious  feeling,  the  seat  of  religion 
in  the  heart,  should  be  pointed  out.  It  was  a  mighty  impulse  to 
science  that  men  were  directed  from  the  arbitrary  abstract  aggregate 


PAST  CENTURY'S  RELIGIOUS  LEADERS.  119 

called  the  Religion  of  Reason  to  the  historical  significance,  in  the 
flesh  and  blood  of  life,  of  religion,  and  of  Christianity  as  part  of  re- 
ligion. This  accorded  with  the  newly-awakened  interest  and  sense 
for  research." 

In  1810  Schleiermacher  became  professor  of  theology  in  the  new 
University  of  Berlin,  and  was  also  a  preacher  in  Trinity  Church,  and 
from  that  time  until  his  death,  on  the  13th  of  February,  1834,  he 
was  recognized  as  the  greatest  theologian,  as  well  as  the  greatest 
preacher,  in  German  Protestantism.  Schkiermacher  was  an  old- 
fashioned  German  professor,  having  his  say  about  everything,  but 
his  fame  rests  upon  the  "Speeches  on  Religion,"  already  mentioned, 
and  on  his  lectures  on  theology.  Along  with  his  deep  thinking  and 
speculations  went  a  very  simple  religious  life,  and  the  scene  about  his 
deathbed  was  so  touching  and  so  indicative  of  his  piety,  that  it  may 
well  be  repeated  here.  Shortly  before  he  died  he  said:  "Lord,  I 
have  never  clung  to  the  dead  letter,  and  we  have  the  propitiatory 
death  of  Jesus  Christ,  His  body  and  His  blood.  I  have  ever  believed 
and  still  believe  that  the  Lord  Jesus  gave  the  Supper  in  water  and 
wine."  Then  raising  himself  he  said:  "Are  you  also  at  one  with 
me  in  this  faith,  that  the  Lord  Jesus  blessed  the  water  in  the  wine  ?" 
On  the  assent  of  the  bystanders,  he  continued :  "Then  let  us  take 
the  Supper ;  you  the  wine  and  me  the  water.  Let  no  one  be  troubled 
about  the  form."  After  the  words  of  the  institution  he  said:  "On 
these  words  of  the  Scriptures  I  rest;  they  are  the  foundation  of  my 
faith."  Then  turning  to  his  wife  he  said :  "In  this  love  and  com- 
munion we  are  and  remain  one."  A  few  moments  more  and  he  had 
departed. 

It  may  be  that  the  evil  that  men  do  live  after  them,  but  the  good 
does  also.  And  although  Simeon  and  Schleiermacher  were  in  entire 
ignorance  of  each  other's  existence,  and  the  one  in  his  literal  Bib- 
lical views,  and  the  other  in  his  speculative  and  philosophical  views, 
were  probably  as  far  apart  as  persons  could  well  be,  they  had  one 
point  of  contact,  which  makes  them  essentially  one,  and  that  is,  they 
were  ardent  lovers  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Schleiermacher  was 
always  ready  to  turn  aside  from  his  profound  lectures  and  sermons 
to  say  a  few  simple  words  of  loving  admiration  and  profound  grati- 
tude toward  that  Heavenly  Being  who  had  come  down  to  earth  to  be 
his  Saviour.  Like  Simeon,  he  clung  closely  to  the  essential  Christ, 
and  in  this  all-compeUing  name  he  called  the  people  back  from  their 
wanderings  in  the  paths  of  rationalism  and  atheism  to  God  and  to  the 


120  CHEISTENDOi¥. 

Son  of  God,  and  for  this  service  he  deserves  to  he  held  in  perpetual 
remembrance. 


HOEACE  BUSHN^ELL :    Theodore  T.  Monger,  D.D. 

It  is  getting  to  be  generally  recognized  that  next  to  Jonathan 
Edwards,  no  theologian  in  England  has  exercised  so  deep  and  perma- 
nent an  influence  as  Horace  Bushnell.  As  the  sun  of  one  was  de- 
scending, that  of  the  other  rose,  but  has  not  yet  set.  The  contrasts 
between  them  are  man}',  but  none  is  so  striking  as  that  between  the 
gradual  decadence  of  the  influence  upon  theology  of  Edwards  and 
the  growing  influence  of  Bushnell,  which  actually  unfolds  to  meet 
new  phases  of  thought.  The  reason  for  the  difference  is  plain. 
Edwards'  work  clustered  about  the  will^  taken  at  the  point  of  its 
evolution  from  necessity  into  freedom,  where  he  rendered  great  ser- 
vice. But  the  factor  ceased  to  be  important,  and  the  theology  built 
upon  it  shared  the  same  fate.  Bushnell  hardly  touched  the  will, 
assuming  its  full  freedom,  and  laid  hold  of  themes  that  are  perma- 
nent by  their  very  nature.  His  contentions  were  spread  over  life  in 
all  its  breadth,  and  his  treatment  of  it  was  drawn  from  Nature  and 
from  the  world  of  the  Spirit.  Themes  taken  from  such  a  source  will 
never  lose  their  interest  so  long  as  they  are  treated  by  a  great  mind. 

It  is  almost  a  hundred  years  since  Horace  Bushnell  was  born  in 
Litchfield,  Conn.  Three  years  later  his  parents  moved  to  New  Pres- 
ton, nearby,  where  he  was  reared  upon  a  farm,  supplemented  by  a 
wool  carding  and  dressing  factory.  He  shared  in  the  labor  of  each 
until  he  was  twenty-one,  winning  meanwhile  a  good  common  school 
education  and  a  preparation  for  college.  The  influence  of  his  home 
was  deep  and  lasting.  His  father  was  a  Methodist  and  his  mother  an 
Episcopalian,  but  both  became  sincere  members  of  the  Congrega- 
tional Church — there  being  no  other  in  the  town.  The  Puritan  in- 
fluence, without  doubt,  predominated,  but  it  was  softened  and  quali- 
fied by  the  other  strains.  There  was  more  of  the  Arminian  than  of 
the  Calvinist  in  his  theology;  and  as  he  said  of  himself,  "I  always 
had  it  for  my  satisfaction,  so  far  as  I  properly  could,  that  I  was  Epis- 
copally  regenerated."  The  beauty  of  the  region  about  him,  the 
moral  earnestness  of  the  community,  the  purity  and  intelligence  of 
his  home,  the  drill  of  work,  the  play  of  his  own  mind — believing,  yet 
always  full  of  question — such  were  the  influences  that  followed  him 


■^m--bh^.k 


THEODORE    L.    CUYLER,.  D.D.,  LL.D. 


PAST  CENTURY'S  RELIGIOUS  LEADERS.  121 

to  Yale  College,  where  he  entered  at  the  age  of  twenty-one,  a  man  in 
years,  and  beyond  his  years  in  the  maturity  of  his  character.  He 
was  the  leader  of  his  class  physically  and  intellectually,  a  good  stu- 
dent, too  earnest  for  much  play,  but  no  recluse,  and  living  a  college 
life  out  to  the  full.  After  graduation  he  studied  law,  but  was  made 
tutor,  and  while  in  that  relation  he  threw  off  a  latent  scepticism  that 
had  come  over  him,  and  found  himself,  after  much  struggle,  in  the 
peaceful  exercise  of  a  faith  which  he  stated  in  a  phrase  that  underlay 
one  of  his  main  contentions  in  theology:  "My  heart  w^ants  the 
Father ;  my  heart  wants  the  Son ;  my  heart  wants  the  Holy  Ghost — 
and  one  just  as  much  as  the  other."  Bushnell's  life  and  work  were 
based  on  that  experience. 

He  had  studied  theology  in  the  Divinity  School  while  a  tutor, 
where  he  came  under  the  instruction  of  Dr.  N.  W.  Taylor — last,  and 
by  no  means  least,  of  the  New  England  theologians  of  the  Edwardian 
school.  His  reaction  from  the  theology  of  the  day,  which  began  in 
college,  increased  rather  than  lessened  while  in  the  seminary,  but  it 
moved  in  circles  and  forms  of  thought  that  kept  him  aloof  from  the 
fierce  controversies  that  were  going  on  between  the  two  schools  in 
theology,  which  were  chiefly  over  the  will.  Bushnell  waived  them 
or  rose  above  them,  and  fell  to  meditating  on  the  nature  of  language 
itself,  and  so  delivered  himself  out  of  the  contentions  that  turned 
mainly  on  close  definition  of  words.  Under  such  a  cover — ^lionestly 
taken,  however — ^he  found  a  settlement,  unchallenged  by  either  party, 
over  the  North  Church,  in  Hartford,  though  not  without  suspicion, 
because  of  his  association  with  the  new  Divinity  School. 

Thus  he  entered  upon  a  career  untrammeled  by  adherence  to  any 
party,  with  the  freedom  that  a  Congregational  pastor  can  claim 
whenever  he  sees  fit.  Dr.  Bushnell  needed  all  the  sea-room  he  could 
gain,  for  he  was  to  sail  far  and  wide  upon  seas  then  unknown,  or 
known  only  as  full  of  danger.  He  is  to  be  regarded  as  a  preacher 
and  a  theologian.  For  a  period  of  twenty-six  years — 1833-59 — he 
filled  the  pulpit  and  pastorate  of  his  church  with  incessant  labor,  ex- 
cept when  forced  to  rest  by  illness.  From  the  age  of  forty  he  was 
an  invalid  until  his  death,  but  never  did  he  rest  from  his  labors.  He 
spent  a  year  (1845)  in  Europe,  a  winter  at  the  West  (1852),  and 
another  in  Cuba  (1855),  and  a  year  in  California  (1856).  They 
by  no  means  were  periods  of  inaction.  Bushnell  was  a  thinker  of 
the  meditative  order — ^not,  as  is  often  said,  a  restless  one ;  rather  was 
he  a  steady  and  incessant  thinker,  and  always,  after  the  New  England 


.122  CHEISTENDOM. 

fashion,  on  great  subjects.  His  larger  works  were  conceived  in  his 
sermons  and  carried  out  in  these  periods  of  search  for  health,  but  in 
not  a  line  of  them  is  there  a  trace  of  invalidism. 

This  brief  sketch  must  assume  a  knowledge  of  the  theological  con- 
dition in  New  England  in  the  middle  of  the  century.*  It  might 
briefly  be  described  as  a  transition  from  the  dogmatism  of  the  Ed- 
wardian system  to  those  methods  induced  by  modern  thought  and 
science.  It  was  a  period  of  confusion  and  hot  debate — one  order 
passing  away  and  another  coming  on ;  a 

"Wandering  between  two  worlds,  one  dead, 
The  other  powerless  to  be  born." 

What  was  needed  was  not  an  ecclesiastical  leader,  but  a  great 
thinker ;  not  a  critic  nor  a  destroyer,  but  a  prophet  and  an  upbuilder. 
It  will  not  be  claimed  that  Bushnell  made  no  mistakes,  but — ^looking 
back — it  is  difficult  to  imagine  how  the  work  that  was  needed  could 
have  been  better  done.  Even  in  the  light  of  present  thought  it  can 
be  seen  that  his  shortcomings  and  wanderings  served  to  win  the 
attention  and  sympathy  of  one  party  and  to  mitigate  the  antagonism 
of  the  other  party. 

Bushnell  did  not  seek  the  role  of  a  reformer.  Whatever  he  under- 
took came  to  him  as  a  pastor.  He  met  his  questicns  in  the  way;  but 
once  seen  and  felt,  they  were  searched  to  the  bottom,  when  utterance 
became  a  necessity.  The  audience  he  found  and  holds  is  a  sign,  but 
not  the  measure  of  his  greatness. 

It  was  in  this  natural  way  that  he  approached  his  most  significant 
and  moving  book,  "Christian  Nurture.^'  It  was,  in  its  present  form, 
ten  years  in  preparation,  having  been  called  out,  at  first,  by  a  request 
of  his  Ministerial  Association,  in  order  to  explain  more  fully  what 
he  had  already  said  in  a  review  article.  Its  specific  aim  was  to  show 
that  "the  child  is  to  grow  up  a  Christian,  and  never  know  himself  as 
being  otherwise."  This  apparently  innocent  statement  of  what  seems 
to  be  a  most  desirable  thing  shook  New  England  theology  to  its  foun- 
dation. The  book  with  difficulty  came  into  being,  its  first  issue  hav- 
ing been  recalled  by  a  timid  publication  society.  Though  charged 
as  heretical,  it  was  in  fact  a  return  to  an  older  and  never  questioned 
orthodoxy.     The  New  England  churches,  under  the  influence  of  de- 


*  For  a  fuller  statement,  see  "Horace  Bushnell ;  Preacher  and  Theologian,' 
patisim,  but  specially  Chapter  III. 


PAST  CENTURY'S  RELIGIOUS  LEADERS.  133 

bates  over  the  will  and  the  rise  of  democracy,  had  drifted  into  an 
individualism  that  practically  excluded  children  from  the  church  in 
which  they  stood  by  virtue  of  baptism. 

Individualism  favored  the  revival  system,  which  also  necessarily 
ignored  children.  Hence  Bushnell  set  himself  to  limit  and  define 
the  place  of  individualism  in  the  church,  and  to  plead  for  the  Chris- 
tian nurture  of  the  young,  in  place  of  reliance  upon  revivalism  as  it 
then  was. 

It  is  enough  to  say  of  this  treatise  that  it  not  only  prompted  that  re- 
turn of  the  churches  to  the  nurture  of  their  children  which  had  been 
obscured  and  almost  buried  under  other  theories,  but  it  undermined 
a  good  part  of  the  Calvinism  that  had  shut  it  out.  The  greatness 
of  this  achievement  has  not  yet  been  duly  recognized.  Not  only  did 
"Christian  Nurture"  recall  the  churches  to  ancient  and,  I  might  say, 
eternal  orthodoxy,  and  re-established  in  the  church  the  proper  law 
of  its  growth,  but  it  no  less  turned  thought  to  the  future  and  pre- 
pared the  way  for  those  conceptions  and  methods  of  training  the 
young  which  now  prevail  and  have  the  sanction  of  psychology  and 
of  impartial  human  nature.  No  better  handbook  on  the  subject  has 
ever  been  produced.  When  first  read  it  seems  to  be  a  wise  and  fer- 
vent appeal  for  a  careful  and  intelligent  training  of  children;  and 
here,  indeed,  is  its  chief  value.  But  it  reaches  into  other  fields. 
Looked  at  theologically,  all  its  implications  are  opposed  to  Calvin- 
ism— old  or  new.  If  regarded  ecclesiastically,  its  implications  are  in 
favor  of  the  historic  churches. 

While  "Christian  Nurture"  was  the  first  serious  work  of  Bush- 
nell, it  was  not  his  first  volume ;  that  was  "God  in  Christ,"  prefaced 
by  a  "Dissertation  on  Language."  The  key  to  a  right  understanding 
of  Bushnell  is  always  to  be  found  in  this  brief  essay  on  language, 
nor  is  it  fair  to  judge  him  otherwise  than  by  it.  He  faced  a  the- 
ology that  was  based  on  and  defended  by  definitions.  It  was,  there- 
fore, narrow  and  human,  rather  than  Divine.  To  escape  from  this 
world  of  literalism  and  hard  deduction  was  a  prime  necessity  for 
Bushnell.  He  could  neither  breathe  nor  find  room  to  move  about 
in  a  world  so  shut  in. 

"God  in  Christ,"  a  volume  made  up  from  three  sermons  enlarged 
into  treatises,  had  its  genesis  in  the  prevailing  conception  of  the 
Trinity.  The  Unitarian  movement  had  led  many  of  the  churches 
to  recast  their  creeds — as  Congregational  churches  have  a  right  to 
do,  each  for  itself — in  such  a  way  as  to  imply  tritheism;  and  the 


124  CHRISTENDOM. 

popular  defenses  of  the  doctrine  all  verged  in  that  direction.  Bush- 
nell's  book  is  a  protest  against  this  over-orthodoxy,  and  puts  in  its 
place  what  he  calls  an  "instrumental  Trinity" ;  the  three  persons  are 
forms  or  modes  in  which  Clod  manifests  Himself. 

He  was  charged  with  Sabellianism — if,  instead,  the  term  semi- 
Sabellian  had  been  used  it  would  have  been  correct.  But  whatever 
it  is  called,  it  saved  the  churches  of  New  England  from  a  general 
lapse  into  deism,  for  the  Arian  view,  then  prevalent,  had  no  retaining 
power  and  was  not  long  after  discarded  under  the  lead  of  Theodore 
Parker.  Tritheism  was  too  near  polytheism  to  be  endurable.  Bush- 
nell's  theory  of  an  instrumental  Trinity,  despite  much  criticism  and 
almost  persecution,  gradually  worked  its  way  into  acceptance,  but 
with  a  steadily  increasing  pressure  on  the  humanity  of  Christ  and 
the  doctrine  of  the  Spirit. 

This  volume  was  soon  followed  by  another — supplementary  and 
explanatory — under  the  title  of  "Christ  in  Theology."  Though  one 
of  his  most  brilliant  productions,  it  is  no  longer  in  print,  for  the  rea- 
son that  it  is  a  vigorous — at  times  more  than  vigorous — defense 
against  accusations  of  heresy  and  bitter  attempts  to  bring  him  to 
trial.  These  efforts  were  kept  up  for  more  than  five  years — ■Congre- 
gationalism, though  sensitive  to  divergence  in  theology,  is  not  favor- 
able to  conviction  of  heresy. 

Bushnell's  next  volume  was  "Nature  and  the  Supernatural."  Like 
his  previous  works  it  was  an  attempt  to  deliver  the  churches  from  a 
definition  of  miracles  as  a  violation  or  suspension  of  natural  laws. 
This  generally  accepted  view  was  working  havoc  in  faith  and  feeding 
infidelity  just  in  the  degree  in  which  it  was  urged.  The  conflict  be- 
tween creed  and  science  had  begun. 

A  great  argument  cannot  be  put  into  a  word,  and  all  we  have  space 
to  say  of  it  is — that  it  contends  that  Nature  with  its  laws,  and  the 
supernatural,  which  is  a  spiritual  world,  over  but  not  contrary  to 
Nature,  together  form  our  system  of  God.  The  old  view,  however 
plausible  in  one  stage  of  human  thought,  and  however  consonant  with 
the  accepted  theory  of  inspiration,  was  no  longer  tenable.  Modern 
thought  and  forogleams  of  the  conservation  of  energy  demanded 
some  unity  in  nature.  Bushnell  gave  it  in  liberal  measure,  and  in 
such  a  form  that  faith  no  longer  rested  on  confusion.  His  treat- 
ment may  be  summed  up  as  referring  the  subject  to  the  general  prob- 
lem of  Jesus — the  miracles  do  not  prove  Him;  He  proves  the 
miracles. 


PAST  CENTURY'S  EELIGIOUS  LEADERS.  125 

Perhaps  none  of  his  works  was  more  eagerly  welcomed  or  brought 
so  great  relief  to  troubled  minds  as  this.  While  singularly  at  fault 
in  certain  respects,  it  is  regarded  as  the  most  carefully  wrought  of 
his  treatises. 

His  fourth  treatise  pertains  to  the  Atonement  and  was  published 
in  1864  under  the  title  "The  Vicarious  Sacrifice."  Late  in  life 
(1874)  he  published  a  supplementary  volume,  "Forgiveness  and 
Law";  after  his  death  the  two  were  combined  in  one  book,  and  now 
issued  as  such  with  a  modified  sub-title.  Again  we  must  confine 
ourselves  to  a  word.  Bushnell's  aim  in  this  great  work  is  to  sup- 
plant the  expiatory  theory  of  the  Atonement  as  it  is  stated  in  the 
Westminster  Confession  and  the  Grotian  or  governmental  theory — 
generally  held  in  New  England — by  what  came  to  be  known  as  the 
"moral  view."  In  all  his  writing  there  is  nothing  so  revolutionary, 
and  so  at  variance  with  prevailing  orthodoxy,  as  the  following  quota- 
tion will  show:  "Christ  is  a  mediator  only  in  the  sense  that,  as 
being  in  humanity,  he  is  a  medium  of  God  to  us."  That  is,  he  is 
not  an  expiatory  sacrifice  laden  with  the  sin  of  the  world,  but  a 
revelation  of  God's  love  and  power  set  to  work  in  humanity  for  its 
deliverance  from  sin  by  a  moral  process.  I  have  elsewhere  spoken 
of  its  methods  as  follows:  "Bushnell  domiciled  it  in  the  religious 
thought  of  the  day,  and  saved  it  from  utter  loss  by  recasting  it  in  the 
terms  of  human  experience.  It  is  a  view  of  the  Atonement  that 
deepens  and  strengthens  life  at  every  point.  Its  central  idea  is  that 
it  puts  the  believer  directly  into  the  very  process  by  which  Christ 
became  a  redeemer,  and  is  saving  the  world ;  that  Christ  does  nothing 
for  a  man  beyond  what  the  man  himself  is  required  to  do  for  other 
men,  and  that  it  is  exactly  at  this  point  that  the  world  is  redeemed — 
the  principles  underlying  salvation  are  of  ^universal  obligation.'  "* 

Briefest  mention  must  suffice  for  Bushnell's  work  in  other  forms 
than  these  four  treatises.  He  published  three  volumes  of  sermons 
which  reached  a  circulation  surpassed  by  few  preachers  in  the  coun- 
try. "They  are  to  be  found  on  the  shelves  of  every  manse  in  Scot- 
land," said  Prof.  George  Adam  Smith,  adding  that  "he  is  the  preach- 
er's preacher."  Even  to-day  no  preacher  of  standing  dares  to  con- 
fess that  he  leaves  them  unread.  Taken  as  a  whole,  they  reinforce 
the  general  purport  of  his  four  theological  treatises,  and  translate 
their  main  contentions  into  everyday  life.     They  reflect  and  aug- 


*  "Horace  Bushnell ;  Preacher  and  Theologian."    By  Theodore  T.   Munger. 
Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co. ;  1899. 


126  CHRISTENDOM. 

ment  the  transition  that  was  going  on  in  the  world  of  thought  and 
discovery.  They  strike  straight  into  life  and  the  heart  of  things — 
as  though  dogma  had  no  existence.  They  deal  with  the  unchange- 
able factors  and  conditions  of  humanity.  For  weight  of  matter  they 
have  no  superior.  "They  are  timeless  in  their  truth,  majestic  in 
their  diction,  commanding  in  their  moral  tone,  penetrating  in  their 
spirituality,  and  are  pervaded  by  that  quality  without  which  a  sermon 
is  not  one — the  Divine  uttering  itself  to  the  human.  There  is  no 
striving  and  crying  in  the  streets,  no  heckling  of  saints  nor  dooming 
of  sinners,  no  petty  debates  over  details  of  conduct,  no  dogmatic 
assumptions,  no  logical  insistence,  but  only  the  gentle  and  mighty 
persuasions  of  truth,  coming  as  if  breathed  by  the  very  spirit  of 
truth.''* 

Four  volumes  of  essays  and  addresses,  with  those  already  named, 
fill  out  the  work  of  Bushnell  so  far  as  it  has  been  put  into  permanent 
form.  It  is  in  these  volumes  that  one  realizes  that  he  belongs  to  the 
world  of  literature  as  well  as  to  theology.  It  is  there  we  see  him  as 
a  poet — well  defined  by  his  Cambridge  address  on  "Work  and  Play." 
In  others— as  "The  Growth  of  Law,"  "The  Founders  Great  in  Their 
Unconsciousness,"  the  "True  Wealth  and  Weal  of  Nations,"  and 
"Barbarism  the  First  Danger,"  we  find  a  civilian  of  the  first  order. 
"The  Age  of  Homespun"  will  perhaps  be  the  longest  read  of  his 
writings,  as  an  unequaled  picture  of  a  phase  of  New  England  life, 
photographic  in  its  accuracy  and  idyllic  in  its  form. 

The  volume,  "Moral  Uses  of  Dark  Things,"  while  at  fault  on  some 
matters  of  science,  is  a  series  of  profound  psychological  studies  of 
certain  phases  of  human  life — as  correct  as  if  written  to-day,  and 
masterly  in  their  unraveling  of  the  ethical  as  it  is  interwoven  with 
human  experience — "tearing  the  disguise  of  a  curse  from  many  a 
blessing." 

Two  essays  on  preaching  touch  the  high-water  mark  of  all  discus- 
sions of  the  pulpit,  and  should  be  the  vade  mecum  of  every  preacher. 

We  have  mentioned  but  eleven  of  his  volumes,  but  a  full  bibliog- 
raphy would  indicate  more  than  fifty  titles,  consisting  chiefly  in 
addresses  and  magazine  articles.  He  followed  the  nation  from  the 
beginning  to  the  end  of  its  conflict  with  slavery,  with  discussions 
of  its  phases  profound  in  their  statesmanship  and  enlivening  in  their 
patriotism.     When  the  war  ended  he  pronounced  a  funeral  oration 


♦Quoted  from  "Horace  Bushnell;  Preacher  and  Theologian":  p.  288. 


PAST  CENTURY'S  RELIGIOUS  LEADERS.  127 

over  the  Yale  alumni  who  had  fallen,  on  "Our  Obligations  to  the 
Dead,"  which  might  serve  for  all  the  dead  in  that  and  later  conflicts. 
Like  Lincoln's  address  at  Gettysburg,  it  is  keyed  not  to  heroism  and 
bravery  but  to  sacrifice.  Bushnell  always  aimed  at  the  deepest  in  his 
subject,  and  struck  its  highest  note. 

In  closing,  we  can  offer  no  better  sign  and  index  of  the  man  than 
that  made  by  the  city  in  which  he  lived  for  almost  half  a  century. 
He  was  the  ideal  citizen.  He  had  fed  its  life  from  the  first,  breathed 
his  own  strong  spirit  into  its  people,  guided  it  by  his  counsels,  hon- 
ored it  by  his  achievements,  labored  for  its  welfare  in  all  ways,  beau- 
tified it  by  securing,  through  his  untiring,  personal  efforts,  a  public 
park,  now  crowned  by  the  State  Capitol.  On  the  day  of  his  death 
he  was  told  it  had  been  offcially  named  for  him.  It  was  the  grateful 
voice  of  the  entire  city. 

And  so,  at  Hartford,  Conn.,  on  February  17,  1876,  he  ended  his 
great,  and  at  times  stormy,  but  always  successful,  career,  at  the  age 
of  almost  seventy-five  years,  having  been  born  at  New  Preston,  Conn., 
April  14,  1802. 


JAMES  MARTINEAU :     Rev.  AVm.  D.  Grant,  Ph.D. 

The  subject  of  this  sketch  came  of  Huguenot  stock,  and  was  the 
seventh  of  eight  children  of  Thomas  Martineau,  of  Norwich,  and 
Elizabeth  Rankin,  of  Newcastle-on-Tyne,  England,  being  born  at 
Norwich,  April  21,  1805,  and  dying  in  London,  January  11,  1900. 

His  native  town  was  not  without  its  people  of  culture  and  distinc- 
tion and  places  venerable  with  age  and  endeared  by  association.  His 
father,  having  met  with  business  reverses,  left  the  family  with  fewer 
advantages  than  otherwise  would  have  been  enjoyed  had  prosperity 
continued.  Young  Martineau  attended  the  grammar  school  of  his 
native  place  from  his  eighth  to  his  fourteenth  year;  thence  he  was 
sent  to  Bristol  to  the  school  of  Dr.  Lent  Carpenter,  where  he  re- 
mained for  two  years.  To  no  other  of  his  mental  helpers  does  Mar- 
tineau confess  a  larger  debt  of  gratitude  than  to  this  preceptor,  who 
communicated  both  goodness  and  learning ;  while  teaching  his  pupils 
how  to  decline  virtus,  he  taught  them  at  the  same  time  to  love  virtue. 

It  was  decided  in  the  family  councils  that  James  should  become  an 
engineer ;  accordingly,  he  was  sent  to  Derby  to  master  his  profession. 
But,  to  his  father's  disappointment,  he  remained  there  but  a  year, 
having  in  the  meantime  decided  to  enter  the  Christian  ministry.  The 


128  CHRISTENDOM. 

historical  universities  of  England  had  not  as  yet  become  liberalized, 
as  they  still  required  subscription  to  the  Thirty-Nine  Articles  of  the 
Church  of  England  by  those  who  would  enjoy  their  advantages.  So 
our  dissenter  entered  in  1823  as  a  student  at  Manchester  College, 
then  located  at  York.  This  was  a  college  of  divinity  and  general 
culture,  with  a  course  of  five  years,  the  last  two  being  theological. 
Having  completed  the  full  course,  Mr.  Martineau,  at  the  age  of 
twenty-two,  with  thoroughly  furnished  mind  and  disciplined  facul- 
ties, was  prepared  to  serve  his  age  in  the  Christian  ministry;  but 
though  admitted  to  preach  he  did  not  for  a  year  enter  upon  formal 
work. 

His  former  instructor.  Dr.  Carpenter,  of  the  Bristol  School,  having 
become  ill  through  excessive  toil,  Mr.  Martineau  was  invited  to  take 
his  place.  Though  urged  to  continue  as  principal  of  the  school,  and 
though  he  was  fully  qualified  and  found  the  duties  pleasant  and  fairly 
remunerative,  he  preferred  to  follow  the  calling  to  which  he  had 
dedicated  himself.  He  therefore  accepted  an  invitation  to  become 
co-pastor  of  the  Eustace  Street  Presbyterian  Church,  Dublin,  in  the 
autumn  of  1828.  This  congregation  was  more  allied  in  its  doctrine 
to  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  England  than  to  that  of  Scotland — 
the  Bible  being  regarded  as  the  sole  rule  of  faith  and  life.  Shortly 
after  his  settlement  in  Dublin  he  crossed  to  England  and  was  united 
in  marriage  to  Helen  Higginson.  Here  he  labored  and  grew  and 
was  happy  in  his  work  for  three  years,  and  finally  severed  his  con- 
nection with  the  congregation  only  because  he  refused  to  be  a  party 
with  them  in  accepting  state  aid — re.gium  donum — of  one  hundred 
pounds.  Shortly  afterward  he  was  invited  to  become  a  colleague 
of  Rev.  John  Grundy,  Paradise  Street  Chapel,  Liverpool.  Mr. 
Grundy,  however,  dying  in  1S35,  left  Martineau  in  sole  charge. 

Through  a  public  controversy  in  1839  between  Evangelical  Epis- 
copacy on  the  one  hand,  and  Mr.  Martineau  and  two  clerical  associates 
representing  Unitarianism  on  the  other,  not  only  did  the  trend  of  his 
mind  toward  full-fledged  Unitarian  belief  become  manifest,  but  he 
emerged  from  the  contest  with  a  consciousness  of  power  unknown 
before  either  to  himself  or  to  others. 

In  1840  he  received  an  appointment  as  Professor  of  Mental  and 
Moral  Philosophy  and  Political  Economy  in  Manchester  New  Col- 
lege— his  alma  mater.  Here  for  forty-five  years  he  was  to  toil  at  the 
deep  problems  of  the  sages.  In  connection  therewith,  however,  he 
continued  his  duties  as  pastor  at  Liverpool.     In  1841  the  attitude  of 


JAMES    MARTINKAU 


PAST  CENTURY'S  RELIGIOUS  LEADERS.  129 

his  mind  toward  Unitarianism  further  appears  in  his  ''Five  Views 
of  Christian    Faith." 

In  1S48,  his  congregation  having  undertaken  the  erection  of  a  new 
church  edifice,  he  took  advantage  of  the  opportunity  to  go  to  Ger- 
many for  rest  and  study.  In  Berlin  he  attended  the  lectures  of 
Trendelenburg — who  expounded  the  Stagirite — in  logic  and  the  his- 
tory of  philosophy.  Martineau  himself  acknowledges  that  this  ex- 
perience in  Greek  philosophic  studies  brought  him  to  a  "new  intel- 
lectual birth."  Necessarianism  now  reached  complete  and  conscious- 
repudiation.  His  study  and  travel  having  exercised  a  marked  influ- 
ence upon  his  thought  and  life,  he  returned  to  his  congregation  in 
October,  1849,  after  fifteen  months'  absence.  He  was  invited  to 
America  to  give  the  Lowell  lectures,  but  the  civil  war  prevented  him 
carrying  out  the  engagement.  In  1858  Manchester  New  College 
was  transferred  to  London.  This  made  Martineau's  task  more  la- 
borious, as  it  increased  the  distance  which  he  constantly  required  to 
travel.  He  continued  his  double  labors,  however,  four  years  longer, 
when  he  was  invited  to  London  in  order  that  he  might  devote  his 
entire  time  to  his  college  work.  He  reluctantly  severed  his  pastoral 
relationship  with  his  church  in  Liverpool  after  a  ministry  of  twenty- 
five  years.  In  1858  he  became  joint  pastor  with  Dr.  J.  J.  Tayler, 
of  Little  Portland  Street  Unitarian  Chapel,  while  still  continuing 
the  duties  of  his  professorship.  This  chapel,  it  is  said,  wr.s  plain 
almost  to  rudeness,  and  had  accommodation  for  about  five  hundred 
people,  yet  it  soon  became  a  centre  for  some  of  the  most  thoughtful 
and  cultured  people  in  London,  attracted  thither  by  the  intellectual 
power  and  spiritual  vision  of  Professor  Martineau.  In  1869  Mar- 
tineau became  principal  of  the  college  and  sole  preacher  at  the  chapel^ 
where  he  continued  to  minister  till  1872. 

She  who  for  so  many  years  had  been  the  partner  of  his  struggles 
and  triumphs,  of  his  sorrows  and  joys,  faded  and  died  in  1877,  leav- 
ing him  to  face  the  remaining  years  alone.  Having  served  his  alma 
mater  so  faithfully  and  acceptably  for  five  and  forty  years,  at  the 
age  of  eighty  he  desired  to  be  released.  His  request  was  reluctantly 
granted,  yet  for  three  more  years  he  remained  on  the  Board  of 
Direction.  His  retirement  from  public  office,  hoAvever,  was  in  no 
sense  due  to  enfeeblement  of  mind  or  lack  of  interest  in  public  af- 
fairs; rather  was  it  that  he  might  have  greater  leisure  for  the  com- 
pletion of  those  literary  tasks  which,  when  eventually  finished,  made- 
him  at  once  the  wonder  and  the  hero  of  the  public. 


130  CHRISTENDOM. 

An  incident  characteristic  of  the  large  tolerance  of  Martineau  oc- 
curred in  connection  with  the  formation  of  the  Metaphysical  So- 
ciety, of  which  he  was  a  member.  Shortly  before  his  death  he  was 
visited  by  a  correspondent  of  "The  Westminster  Gazette,"  to  whom 
he  spoke,  among  other  things,  of  the  famous  Metaphysical  Society. 
He  said  that  the  formation  of  the  society  Avas  indirectly  due  to 
Tennyson,  who,  in  1869,  had  expressed  a  wish  to  the  present  editor 
of  "The  Nineteenth  Century"'  for  the  formation  of  some  society 
which  would  put  down  agnosticism.  Mr.  Knowles  thereupon  went 
in  quest  of  men  whom  he  thought  likely  to  join,  Dr.  Martineau 
among  them.  But  Dr.  Martineau  objected  to  the  militant  character 
of  the  proposed  society,  and  said  that  he  did  not  believe  in  putting 
down  theories,  however  he  might  differ  from  them.  He  suggested 
that  certain  well-known  men  with  agnostic  views  should  be  asked  to 
join,  and  that  the  society  should  thus  consist  of  men  of  different 
types  of  thought,  who,  by  interchange  of  opinion  and  mutual  criti- 
cism, might  possibly  help  one  another.  As  a  result  of  this  the  Meta- 
physical Society  was  formed,  and  ultimately  numbered  about  fifty 
notable  names,  including  Tennyson,  Huxley,  Tyndall,  Jolin  Morley, 
F.  D.  Maurice  Manning,  W.  G.  Ward,  Gladstone,  R.  H.  Hutton, 
Frederic  Harrison,  and  many  other  illustrious  men. 

Professor  Huxley  remarked  regarding  this  society :  "We  thought 
at  first  it  would  be  a  case  of  Kilkenny  cats.  Hats  and  coats  would  be 
left  in  the  hall  before  the  meeting,  but  there  would  be  no  wearers  left 
^fter  it  was  over  to  put  them  on  again.  Instead,  we  came  to  love 
-each  other  like  brothers.  We  all  expended  so  much  charity,  that  had 
it  been  money  we  should  have  been  bankrupt." 

We  are  told  by  his  biographer  that  in  his  figure  Dr.  Martineau 
was  tall  and  spare.  Of  adipose  tissue  he  had  no  superfluity.  One 
meeting  him  in  later  years  would  observe  a  slight  stoop,  though  it 
seemed  rather  the  stoop  of  the  scholar  than  tliat  of  the  octogenarian. 
His  features  were  thin,  his  complexion  was  delicate.  His  eyes, 
which  were  changeful  blue,  were  not  particularly  noticeable  until  he 
became  animated ;  then  his  very  soul  seemed  shining  through  them. 
His  head  was  not  much  beyond  the  average  in  size,  but  compact  and 
perfect  in  its  poise.  His  perceptive  organs  were  large;  his  hair, 
always  remarkable  for  abundance,  was,  in  later  years,  bleached  al- 
most to  whiteness.  The  soul  of  neatness  himself,  he  could  not  en- 
dure untidiness  in  others.  He  had  no  artificial  appetites;  tobacco 
he  never  used ;  without  being  pledged  to  total  abstinence,  he  seldom 


PAST  CENTURY'S  RELIGIOUS  LEADERS.  131 

used  wines  or  liquors,  except  for  medicinal  purposes.  Intemperate 
he  may  have  been  in  work,  if  that  may  be  called  intemperate  which, 
though  vast  in  amount,  was  sustained  to  extreme  age.  All  his 
pleasures  were  of  a  rational  and  ennobling  sort.  Good  art  he  appre- 
ciated; he  enjoyed  music  and  sought  it  for  its  solace;  he  delighted  in 
conversation  with  the  wise  and  good.  He  had  a  fondness  for  moun- 
tain scenery,  and  a  favorite  diversion  of  his  was  walking.  In  his 
seventy-eighth  year  he  wrote  of  the  "annual  delight"  not  yet  forbid- 
den him  of  "reaching  the  chief  summits  of  the  Cairngorm  moun- 
tains." 

His  biographer  tells  us  that  it  was  his  privilege  to  form  acquaint- 
ance with  James  Martineau  in  extreme  age.  "Of  course,  I  expected 
to  meet  a  scholar,  but  a  scholar  may  be  a  Johnson;  I  knew  I  was  to 
confront  a  thinker,  but  a  thinker  may  be  a  Schopenhauer;  I  held 
him  a  man  of  genius,  but  a  genius  may  be  a  Byron  or  a  Carlyle." 
These  examples  only  serve  for  contrast.  "Over  against  the  coarse- 
ness of  Johnson  one  saw  in  Martineau  refinement  refined.  In  con- 
trast with  the  selfishness  of  Schopenhauer,  one  saw  in  him  consider- 
ation for  others  that  was  almost  self-effacement.  In  place  of  the 
cynicism  of  Byron  one  met  in  him  the  serenest  charity;  instead  of 
Carlyle's  rudeness,  the  soul  of  courtesy  and  grace."  The  biog- 
rapher adds :  "The  happy  discovery  was  made  that  Martineau's 
greatness  was  of  the  kind  that  lifts,  but  does  not  overpower.  Of  the 
(juiet  hours  spent  with  him  I  need  not  tell.  Suffice  that  they  fixed 
in  my  mind  the  impression  of  a  sage,  a  hero  and  a  saint ;  of  one  who 
might  converse  with  Plato  and  dare  with  Luther  and  revere  with 
Tauler,  an  habitue  of  the  academy,  who  thrilled  to  the  Categorical 
Imperative  and  who  knelt  at  the  Cross." 

Some  one  has  designated  his  as  a  grand  life,  which  seemed  to 
have  realized  almost  perfectly  our  modern  conception  of  a  wise  and  a 
good  man ;  a  man  who,  "unhasting,  unresting,"  pursued  the  truth, 
with  unreserved  fidelity  and  humility,  from  early  youth  to  the  ex- 
tremest  verge  of  mortal  years;  a  calm,  steadfast,  loftily  devoted 
teacher  and  example  of  righteous  living  without  asceticism,  and  of 
piety  without  a  shadow  of  superstition. 

Francjs  Power  Cobbe  says  of  his  preaching :  "The  general  effect, 
I  used  to  think,  was  not  that  of  receiving  lessons  from  a  teacher,  but 
of  being  invited  to  accompany  a  guide  on  a  mountain  walk.  From 
the  upper  regions  of  thought  where  he  led  us  we  were  able — ^nay, 
compelled — to  look  down  on   our  daily  cares   and   duties  from  a 


132  CHEISTENDOM. 

loftier  point  of  view ;  and  thence  to  return  to  them  with  fresh  feelings 
and  resolutions.  The  exercise  of  climbing  after  hira^  if  laborious, 
was  to  the  last  degree  mentallj^  healthful  and  morally  strengthening. 
To  hear  one  of  his  wonderful  sermons  only,  a  listener  would  come 
away  deeming  the  preacher  par  eminence  a  profound  and  most  dis- 
criminating critic.  To  hear  another,  he  would  consider  him  a  phil- 
osopher, occupied  entirely  with  the  va^jtest  problems  of  scieijce  and 
theology.  Again,  another  would  leave  the  impression  of  a  poet,  as 
great  in  his  prose  as  the  author  of  'In  Memoriam'  in  verse.  And 
lastly  and  above  all,  there  was  always  the  pious  man  filled  with  devout 
feeling,  who,  by  his  very  presence  and  voice,  communicated  rever- 
ence and  the  sense  of  the  nearness  of  an  all-seeing  God.  Martineau 
no  more  assumed  the  tone  of  a  prophet  than  of  a  priest;  not  even 
that  of  a  didactic  teacher;  but  only,  as  said  above,  of  a  guide.  He 
seemed  always  to  say  to  us :  'Come  with  me  and  I  will  show  you 
what  I  have  seen  from  the  mountain  tops.'  Of  preaching  he  said, 
'It  has  been  my  life.'  " 

Some  idea  may  be  gathered  respecting  Martineau's  literary  activi- 
ties by  reviewing  the  following  list  of  publications : 

In  the  first  place  he  issued  three  hymn-books — one  in  Dublin, 
1831 ;  a  second  in  Liverpool,  1840 ;  a  third  in  London,  1874.  He  pub- 
lished in  1836  his  "Eationale  of  Religious  Inquiry" — concise,  strong, 
earnest  and  elevated.  Here  he  treats  familiar  themes  with  the  fresh- 
ness of  original  thought ;  pleading,  with  something  of  prophetic  bold- 
ness, for  rationalism  in  distinction  from  orthodoxy.  In  1843  ap- 
peared the  first  series,  and  in  1847  the  second  series,  of  "Endeavors 
After  the  Christian  Life."  These  two  volumes  were  selections  from 
bis  pulpit  discourses — far  above  the  regions  of  controversy,  he  brin^ 
God's  message  to  the  faiths  and  hopes  of  men.  In  Boston,  in  1852, 
appeared  a  volume  entitled  "Miscellaneous";  in  1858,  a  second  en- 
titled "Studies  of  Christianity."  In  1866-67  Spencer,  of  Boston, 
brought  out  two  volumes  under  the  title  "Essays  Theological  and 
Philosophical."  In  1876  and  1879  Martineau  published  the  first 
and  second  series  of  "Hours  of  Thought  on  Sacred  Things."  In 
1882  his  volume  on  Spinoza  appeared,  "embracing  the  pleasantest 
account  of  his  life,  and  the  toughest  analysis  of  liis  doctrine."  In 
1885,  when  eighty  years  of  age,  "Types  of  Ethical  Theory"  was  is- 
sued in  two  volumes.  In  this  work  ethical  systems  are  shown  to  take 
their  origin  either  from  the  study  of  the  universe  or  from  the  study 
of  man.     In  1888,  at  the  age  of  eighty-three,  he  published  his 


PAST  CENTURY'S  RELIGIOUS  LEADERS.  133 

"Study  of  Religion"  in  two  volumes,  which  proved  to  be  one  of  the 
strongest  defences  of  fundamental  truth.  If  his  "Types  of  Ethical 
Theory"  had  brought  him  to  a  leading  place  among  moral  philoso- 
phers, this  last  work  placed  hira  in  the  foremost  rank  of  philosophers 
of  religion.  Religion  is  here  defined  as,  "Belief  in  an  Ever-living 
God,  that  is,  a  Divine  Mind  and  Will,  ruling  the  universe,  and  hold- 
ing moral  relations  with  mankind."  With  the  publication  of  this 
great  work  it  was  supposed  his  literary  labors  would  cease ;  two  years 
later,  however,  in  1890,  to  the  astonishment  of  his  friends  and  the 
public,  he  issued  the  "Seat  of  Authority  in  Religion."  This,  "in 
range  of  knowledge,  in  keenness  of  insight,  vigor  of  statement  or 
nobility  of  feeling  falls  behind  its  predecessors  in  no  particular." 

The  seat  of  authority  in  religion  he  finds  not  with  the  Roman 
Catholic  in  an  infallible  church,  nor  with  the  Protestant  in  an  in- 
fallible Bible — both  these  seats  of  authority  being  outward — but  he 
finds  the  seat  of  authority  within.  It  is  not  enough  that  a  dictum 
be  true,  in  order  that  I  may  receive  it ;  it  must  be  true  to  me.  Mar- 
tineau  does  not  claim,  however,  for  all  men  the  ability  to  find  thi"s 
warrant  within.  He  finds  it  in  what  he  terms  the  "summit  minds" 
which,  through  the  unity  of  the  race,  represtmt  the  unfolded  possi- 
bilities to  all — the  dimmer  being  dependent  upon  the  clearer  vision; 
the  child  upon  the  parent ;  the  pupil  upon  his  teacher.  Eventually, 
however,  the  child  gives  up  parental  guidance,  the  pupil  outstrips 
his  master.  In  science,  Agassiz  may  be  exchanged  for  Darwin,  and 
Compte  for  Spencer.  But  not  thus  are  we  permitted  to  treat  the 
church  or  the  Bible,  which  speaks  from  above  reason  and  demands  its 
surrender  rather  than  seeks  its  persuasion.  Undoubtedl}^  the  pre- 
dilection of  most  men  is  for  an  ouUvard  authority,  a  voice  that  speaks 
to  them  a  decisive  word.  "As  the  non-use  of  any  faculty  or  power, 
however,  means  its  enfeeblement  and  decay  at  last,  the  revelation  that 
should  supersede  the  hard  exercise  of  reason  and  conscience,  in  the 
determination  of  ultimate  truth,  were  not  God's  blessing,  but  his 
curse." 

Still  there  followed  further  literarv'  efforts,  though  of  a  less  ar- 
duous character;  four  goodly  volumes  of  selected  papers  under  the 
title  of  "Essays,  Reviews  and  Addresses,"  and  lastly  came  a  volume 
of  "Home  Prayei^" — ^his  pax  vohiscum. 

James  Martineau's  life  had  yet  other  years  before  it.  But  here  the 
story  of  his  labors  ends.  He  lived,  as  we  have  said,  until  January  11, 
1900,  and  even  the  last  decade  of  his  life  was  not  a  period  of  idle- 


134  CHRISTENDOM. 

ness.  When  Balfour's  "Foundations  of  Belief"  VTa?.  published,  Mar- 
tineau,  although  at  the  great  age  of  90,  contributed  to  the  "Nine- 
teenth Century"  an  elaborate  discussion  of  the  ntw  book's  contents, 
which  showed  clearly  that  "his  eye  was  not  dim,  nor  his  natural  force 
abated." 

As  may  be  supposed,  Martineau  was  a  remarkable  worker,  both  in 
amount  and  variety ;  a  man  of  diversified  capacities  and  exceptional 
acquisitive  power ;  at  home  alike  in  the  departments  of  mathematics, 
science,  history,  political  economy,  religious  institutions,  biblical 
criticism,  ethics  and  pliilosophy.  Before  me  is  a  record  of  more  than 
twenty  distinct  volumes  to  which  his  name  is  attached,  any  one  of 
ten  of  which  would  have  made  him  noteworthy.  "He  had  manv  a 
teacher,  but  never  a  master."  He  was  a  logician  rather  than  a  di- 
vine, a  Mill  rather  than  an  Emerson,  yet  his  intellect  combined  the 
power  of  both  the  telescope  and  the  microscope,  equal  to  solar  sys- 
tems of  thought  and  the  finest  reticulations  of  argument.  "To  apply 
a  fundamental  truth  to  diverse  problems  of  human  interest,  to  prove 
systems  by  their  congruity  with  it,  to  build  by  it  so  that  his  structure 
in  all  its  parts  should  be  like  the  tree  whose  roots,  trunk,  branches, 
twigs,  leaves,  are  informed  by  one  life,  was  the  aim  by  which  his 
noblest  labors  were  accomplished." 

A  preacher  for  73  years,  a  professor  for  45  years,  a  professor  and 
pastor  for  33  years,  an  author  for  64  years,  whose  last  work  appearecJ 
when  he  was  83,  and  whose  last  review  was  penned  when  he  was  90 
years  of  age,  has  some  right  to  be  called  remarkable. 

His  theological  bent  was  always  Unitarian,  though  he  refused  to 
be  identified  with  Unitarianism  ecclesiastically.  He  was  early  in- 
fluenced by  Charming.  Though  so  commonplace  in  our  day,  to  the 
contemporaries  of  Channing  his  thought  came  with  the  force  of  a 
fresh  inspiration.  Writing  to  his  friend  Thom  regarding  Channing, 
Martineau  says :  "Othere  had  taught  me  much ;  no  one  before  had 
unsealed  the  fountain  itself,  he  was  the  first  to  touch  the  spring  of 
living  water  and  make  me  independent  even  of  himself."  To  Mar- 
tineau the  Scriptures  were  perfectly  human  in  their  origin  though 
recording  superhuman  events;  inspiration  being,  not  mechanical, 
but  "illumination  of  the  spirit  in  direct  contact  with  God."  He 
drew  his  religious  faith  from  the  words  of  Christ — a  "unique"  per- 
sonage— who  was  the  central  orb  of  his  system  and  to  whom  his 
heart  was  fixed  in  loyalty  and  love.  To  him  the  Christianity  of  Christ 
is  without  priest  and  without  ritual. 


PAST  CENTURY'S  EELIGIOUS  LEADERS.  135 

He  viewed  God  as  both  immanent  and  transcendent,  making  possi- 
ble His  full  communion  with  the  spirit  of  man — mind  responsive  to 
mind,  affection  answering  to  affection;  and  though  the  one  be  infinite 
and  the  other  finite,  the  disparity  makes  the  grace  no  less  possible. 
Nay,  he  would  contend  of  all  persons  in  the  universe,  God  is  the  most 
easily  accessible.  He  would  therefore  make  love  to  God  the  basis  and 
the  bond  of  fellowship  and  not  opinions  either  Trinitarian  or  Uni- 
tarian. "It  is  the  conscious  sameness  of  spiritual  relation  that  con- 
stitutes a  church ;  it  is  the  temporary  concurrence  in  theological  opin- 
ion that  embodies  itself  in  a  creed  and  makes  a  sect  in  the  proper 
sense.  The  former  is  unity  in  spite  of  difference,  the  essence  of  the 
latter  being  in  the  accentuation  of  dffference  amid  unity. 

"Be  faithful  to  your  intellect;  seek  the  truth  with  all  earnestness, 
and  proclaim  it  with  all  fervor.  But  building  a  church,  the  central 
figure  of  which  should  be  an  altar,  not  a  doctrine,  make  basal  and 
prominent  the  truth  that  unites,  not  the  speculation  that  divided. 
You  hold  to  the  Love  of  God  and  the  Divine  Unity ;  hold  fast  to  the 
Divine  Unity,  but  rear  your  church  on  the  love  of  God.  Let  the  doc- 
trine be  your  personal  conviction ;  let  the  love  be  your  public  conf es- 
Bion.  In  the  one  you  hold  to  a  theory  in  which  a  few  shall  agree  with 
you,  in  the  other  to  a  sentiment  in  which  Christendom  is  at  one  with 
you.  Others  by  dogmatic  barriers  keep  you  away  from  them ;  see  to 
it  that  by  no  dogmatic  barrier  do  you  hold  them  away  from  you."* 
Noble  words  !  noble  words  !  The  fathers  may  conceive  that  they  are 
building  for  the  sons,  but  the  sons  will  excommunicate  the  fathers. 
Others  would  build  upon  a  doctrine,  he  upon  a  reverence  and  a  love. 

In  responding,  upon  his  eightieth  birthday,  to  the  greetings  of  the 
National  Conference  of  English  Unitarians,  he  declared  his  belief 
that  "the  true  religious  life  supplies  grounds  of  sympathy  and  asso- 
ciation deeper  and  wiser  than  can  be  expressed  by  any  doctrinal 
names  or  formulas,  and  that  free  play  can  never  be  given  to  these 
spiritual  affinities  till  all  stipulation,  direct  or  implied,  for  specified 
agreement  in  theological  opinion,  is  discarded  from  the  bases  of 
church  union." 

Dr.  Martineau  himself,  however,  did  not  expect  any  realinement 
of  ecclesiastical'  organizations  in  his  day,  but  his  teachings  have  had 
a  profound  effect  on  the  thought  of  organized  Christianity,  sweet- 
ening, humanizing,  and,  if  we  may  say  so.  Christianizing  it.  So 
that,  while  the  old  forms  are  still  retained,  and  perhaps  wisely,  the 

*  .Jackson's  "  Life  of  Martineau, "  page  215. 


136  CHRISTENDOM. 

spirit  animating  them  is  less  mechanical  and  less  intent  on  merely 
perpetuating  the  ecclesiastical  machine  as  the  supreine  function  of 
religion. 

Academic  honors  were  slow  in  coming  to  Mr.  Martineau,  but  they 
came.  In  1872  Harvard  University  conferred  upon  him  an  LL.D. 
degree.  Two  3^ears  later  the  University  of  Leyden  gave  him  an 
S.T.D.  degree.  Somewhat  later  Edinburgh  made  him  a  D.D.  Later 
still,  Oxford  honored  him  with  a  D.C.L.  Last  of  all,  Dublin  Uni- 
versity bestowed  upon  him  a  Litt.D.  In  1872  there  came  to  him 
a  worthy  testimonial  of  esteem.  At  the  close  of  the  college  session. 
as  he  was  about  leaving  London,  a  check  for  5,000  guineas  was 
placed  in  his  hand,  with  the  intijnation  that  there  was  more  to  come. 
The  sums  that  flowed  in  later  swelled  the  amount  to  £5,900,  a  por- 
tion of  which  was  devoted  to  the  purchase  of  two  pieces  of  silver 
plate  on  which  was  engraved  a  suitable  inscription.  Accompanying 
the  gift  was  an  address,  to  which  Mr.  IVIartineau  replied  : 

"You  speak  of  mingled  motives  of  this  splendid  gift.  So  far  as 
it  springs  from  personal  friendship  and  generous  affection  it  can 
bring  me,  however  I  may  wonder  at  it,  only  the  sincerest  joy.  But 
to  accept  it  as  an  arrears  of  justice  overdue  would  be  to  charge  a 
wrong  upon  the  past  which  I  can  in  no  way  own.  Far  from  having 
any  claim  to  plead,  I  am  conscious  that,  in  account  of  services  ex- 
changed, I  am  debtor  to  the  world,  and  not  the  world  to  me;  and  am 
half  ashamed  to  have  escaped  so  many  of  the  privations  on  which  I 
reckoned  when  I  quitted  a  secular  profession  for  the  Christian  min- 
istry. My  deepest  disappointrnxcnt  has  been  from  myself  and  not 
from  others,  from  whose  hands  I  have  suffered  no  grievance  I  did 
not  deserve,  and  received  kindness  far  beyond  the  measure  of  my 
boldest  hopes.  Whoever  dedicates  himself  to  bear  witness  to  divine 
things  is  the  least  consistent  of  men,  if  he  does  not  lay  his  account 
for  a  modest  scale  of  outward  life,  and  a  frequent  conflict  with  re- 
sisting interests  and  opinions.  Such  incidents  of  wholesome  diffi- 
culty attending  the  study  and  exposition  of  moral  and  religious  truth 
are  an  essential  guarantee  that  its  service  shall  be  one  of  disinter- 
•ested  love."*  A  little  later,  on  his  retirement  from  the  Little  Port- 
land Street  Chapel,  the  congregation  to  which  he  ministered  pre- 
sented him  with  the  sum  of  £3,500,  described  as  a  token  of  "grati- 
tude, respect  and  admiration." 

We  should  here  note  that  soon  after  the  publication  of  the  "Study 

♦".Tames  Martinoau";  A.  W.  .Tackson,  M.A..  page  101. 


PAST  CENTURY'S  RELIGIOUS  LEADERS.  137 

of  Religion,"  a  movement  was  set  on  foot  under  the  guidance  of 
Prof.  William  Knight,  of  the  University  of  St.  Andrews,  to  greet 
the  author  on  his  eighty-third  birthday  with  an  appropriate  tribute. 
The  form  decided  on  was  that  of  an  address  signed  by  leading  schol- 
ars and  thinkers  of  Europe  and  America,  without  distinction  of  sect 
or  party.  The  address,  drawn  up  and  sent  to  various  friends  for 
criticism,  received  its  final  revision  at  the  hand  of  Benjamin  Jowett. 
After  the  introductory  paragraph  it  went  on  to  say :  "We  thank  you 
for  the  help  which  you  have  given  to  those  who  seek  to  combine  the 
love  of  truth  with  the  Christian  life ;  we  recognize  the  great  services 
which  you  have  rendered  to  the  study  of  the  philosophy  of  religion ; 
and  we  congratulate  you  on  having  completed  recently  two  great  and 
important  works  at  an  age  when  most  men,  if  their  days  are  pro- 
longed, find  it  necessary  to  rest  from  their  labors.  You  have  taught 
your  generation  that,  both  in  politics  and  religion,  there  are  truths 
above  party,  independent  of  contemporary  opinion,  and  which  can- 
not be  overthrown,  for  their  foundations  are  in  the  heart  of  man; 
you  have  shown  that  there  may  be  an  inward  unity  transcending  the 
divisions  of  the  Christian  world,  and  that  the  charity  and  sympathy 
of  Christians  are  not  to  be  limited  to  those  who  bear  the  name  of 
Christ ;  you  have  sought  to  harmonize  the  laws  of  the  spiritual  with 
those  of  the  natural  world,  and  to  give  to  each  their  due  place  in 
human  life ;  you  have  preached  a  Christianity  of  the  spirit,  and  not 
of  the  letter,  which  is  inseparable  from  morality ;  you  have  spoken  to 
us  of  a  hope  beyond  this  world ;  you  have  given  rest  to  the  minds  of 
many." 

The  address  bore  between  600  and  700  signatures  of  those  whose 
praise  was  fame.  The  first  signature  was  that  of  Tennyson ;  the  next 
was  that  of  Robert  Browning;  then  followed  the  names  of  Benjamin 
Jowett,  G.  G.  Bradley,  Dr.  E.  Zeller,  of  BerHn:  F.  Max  Miiller, 
W.  E.  H.  Lecky,  Edwin  Arnold,  E.  Renan,  Otto  Pfleiderer;  a  long 
list  of  professors  of  St.  Andrews,  Edinburgh,  Glasgow,.  Aberdeen, 
Oxford;  of  the  universities  of  Jena,  Berlin,  Groningen,  Amsterdam, 
Leyden;  of  Harvard  University,  the  Andover  Theological  School 
and  Johns  Hopkins  University ;  a  long  array  of  Members  of  Parlia- 
ment; among  distinguished  Americans,  James  Russell  Lowell,  Oli- 
ver Wendell  Holmes,  Frederic  H.  Hedge,  Phillips  Brooks  and  Philip 
Schaff ;  a  great  number  of  clergymen  of  England,  France,  Germany, 
Holland  and  the  United  States ;  in  fine,  the  leaders  of  all  schools  of 
Protestant  Christian  thought.    The  only  names  conspicuously  absent 


138  CHEISTENDOM. 

are  those  of  men  of  science,  especially  of  those  of  agnostic  tenden- 
cies ;  even  some  of  these,  unable  to  subscribe  to  all  the  terms  of  the 
address,  sent  him  their  personal  acknowledgments.* 

It  has  been  said:  "England  is  likely  to  see  another  Gladstone, 
Tennyson,  Euskin  or  Arnold  before  she  sees  another  Martineau." 
This  may  be  not  because  Martineau  so  greatly  surpassed  any  of  these 
in  intellectual  acumen,  spiritual  vision  or  true  virility,  but,  perhaps, 
because  his  was  such  a  "unique  personality,"  so  powerful  and  so 
unique  that  whoever  once  came  under  its  spell  was  never  afterward 
quite  the  same  person;  he  had  met  a  revelation  of  character  and 
power,  a  higher  order  of  man,  whose  touch  had  disclosed  heights  and 
depths  of  being  before  unknown. 

Martineau  occupied  a  unique  and  noble  pre-eminence  among  the 
master  minds  of  his  age ;  he  was  easily  the  peer  of  a  Mill,  a  Darwin, 
a  Spencer,  a  Newman,  or  a  Carlyle  in  the  keenness  of  his  intellect 
and  the  width  of  his  learning.  Though  liberal  yet  was  he  profoundly 
religious ;  the  high  priest  of  tolerance  and  considerateness,  yet  swayed 
by  the  deepest  convictions;  commanding  respect  where  he  could  not 
compel  agreement.  Certainly,  "no  man  in  the  England  of  the  last 
century  did  more  to  liberalize  the  religious  thought  of  the  nation.** 
He  represented  not  only  a  new  school  of  learning,  but  a  new  school 
of  piety  as  well.  Not  the  least  singular  is  his  almost  ascetic  piety 
with  a  bold  and  increasingly  radical  criticism  of  the  canon  of  Scrip- 
ture. But  this  radicalism  was  counterbalanced  by  his  spirit  of  rev- 
erence and  enthusiasm  for  God  and  righteousness. 

Whatever  may  be  the  value  of  Martineau's  philosophical  writings, 
it  was  in  the  spheres  of  morals  and  religion  that  his  most  valuable 
work  was  done.  And  though  most  of  us  may  not  be  able  to  follow 
him  in  his  views  of  the  Divine  Unity,  all  of  us  may  do  so  in  his  love 
of  God  and  loyalty  to  Jesus  Christ.  Some  minds  may  not  accord  with 
his  respecting  the  recognition  that  should  be  given  the  doctrine  of 
evolution,  or  the  social  side  of  man's  nature,  yet  none  of  us  can  fail 
to  wish  that  the  church  at  large  might  not  limp  so  far  behind  him 
in  his  spirit  of  tolerance  and  basis  of  Christian  fellowship.  In  these 
respects  his  greatest  influence  in  Christian  leadership  is  yet  in  the 
future. 

To  him  who  will  undertake  to  read  and  digest  the  voluminous 
writings  of  James  Martineau — or,  to  a  measurable  degree,  Mr.  Jack- 
son's admirable  biography  and  study — may  be  guaranteed  a  liberal 

*  Jackson's  Martineau  ;  page  119. 


PAST  CENTURY'S  RELIGIOUS  LEADERS.  139 

education  in  ethics  and  philosophy,  in  the  arts  of  criticism  and  lit- 
erary grace ;  may  be  guaranteed  a  clearer  understanding  of  the  value 
of  and  what  constitutes  religion,  an  enlarged  spirit  of  tolerance, 
faculties  greatly  disciplined  by  the  exercise  and  heart  expanded  by 
communion  with  one  of  the  choicest  spirits  which  God  has  given  to 
modern  times. 


ALBRECHT  RITSCHL:     Rev.  Alfred  E.  Garvie,  B.D. 

During  the  last  quarter  of  the  century  just  closed  no  name  was 
so  well  known  in  German  theological  circles  as  that  of  Albrecht 
Ritschl ;  none  was  used  with  either  so  warm  praise  or  so  severe  blame. 
In  the  last  decade  of  the  century  his  fame  reached  the  English- 
speaking  world.  It  is  admitted  alike  by  those  who  fear  and  those 
who  welcome  this  influence  that  we  have  much  to  learn  from  German 
theology,  and  that  in  it  at  the  present  moment  the  most  vital  and 
vigorous  force  is  Ritschl,  who  "though  dead  yet  is  speaking''  through 
the  living  voices  of  his  disciples.  It  is,  therefore,  not  only  of  su- 
preme interest,  but  also  of  urgent  importance,  that  we  should  try  to 
understand  the  man  and  prove  his  worth. 

Born  in  Berlin,  March  25,  1822,  his  grandfather,  a  pastor  and 
professor,  and  his  father  a  pastor  and  then  bishop,  Ritschl  was  by 
birth  and  breeding  dedicated  to  theology  as  his  vocation.  Although 
a  man  of  thorough  independence  and  marked  originality,  he  showed 
himself  in  his  student  days,  which  began  in  1839,  receptive  of,  and 
responsive  to,  many  influences  in  his  intellectual  development.  His 
mental  history  was  an  epitome  of  the  course  of  contemporary  Ger- 
man thought.  First  of  all  influenced  at  Bonn  by  Nitzsch,  and  at 
Halle  for  a  short  time  by  Hengstenberg,  Tholuck  and  Miiller,  he  was 
won  for  Hegelianism  by  Erdrnann,  and  then  became  a  disciple  of 
Baur  at  Tiibingcn.  But  in  the  later  phases  of  his  thought  he  owed 
most  to  Schleiermacher,  Kant  and  Lotze.  After  seven  years  spent 
in  varied  and  diligent  study,  he  began  his  career  as  a  university 
teacher,  first  as  a  privatdocent  at  Bonn,  in  1846;  then  he  became  a 
professor  extraordinariiLS  there  in  1852;  and  lastly  he  removed  to 
Gottingen  in  1864  as  professor  ordinarius.  There  twenty-five  quiet 
but  busy  years  were  spent,  and  there  he  died,  March  20,  1889.  One 
of  his  disciples,  Herrmann,  gives  us  a  glimpse  of  what  manner  of 
man  he  was.     "In  religious  intercourse  Ritschl  observed  an  extraor- 


140  CHRISTENDOM. 

dinary  severity  toward  himself.  How  he  lived  in  the  world  of 
thought  of  the  Christian  faith  certainly  was  made  so  clear  in  his 
conversation  that  a  less  powerful  disposition  could  be  wearied  there- 
by. In  his  house  and  here  in  Marburg  I  have  been  whole  days  to- 
gether with  him,  without  his  ever  having  interrupted  our  occupation 
with  the  highest  things  by  a  longer  conversation  of  lighter  content. 
Herein  appeared  his  being  deeply  possessed  by  the  subject.  But 
seldom  did  this  impel  a  feeble  emotional  word ;  but  he  spake  austerely 
and  severely  about  what  moved  his  heart." 

Ritschl's  first  important  work,  "The  Rise  of  the  Old  Catholic 
Church,"  published  in  1849,  showed  that  he  had  ceased  to  be  a  dis- 
ciple of  Baur.  His  greatest  writing,  "The  Christian  Doctrine  of 
Justification  and  Reconciliation,"  the  publication  of  which  was  com- 
pleted in  1874,  marked  the  formation  of  a  Ritschlian  school.  An- 
other great  book,  "The  History  of  Pietism,"  was  completed  in  1886 ; 
but  it  had  no  such  decisive  significance.  Among  his  minor  works 
there  need  to  be  mentioned  only  his  "Instruction  in  the  Christian 
Religion,"  a  brief  but  clear  summary  of  his  theology,  and  his  "Theol- 
ogy and  Metaphysics,"  a  controversial  writing  in  defence  of  his  own 
position.  Since  his  death  his  son  has  published  two  volumes  of  his 
"Essays"  and  his  "Life."  The  first  volume  of  his  "Justification  and 
Reconciliation,"  containing  the  history  of  the  doctrine,  was  trans- 
lated into  English  in  1872 ;  but  the  third  volume,  giving  his  own 
constructive  effort,  appeared  in  English  dress  only  a  few  months 
ago.  His  "Instruction"  has  just  been  translated.  An  understand- 
ing of  his  theology  need  not  now  be  confined  to  those  who  can  read 
his  difficult  German. 

Ritschl's  religious  individuality  explains  both  his  mode  of  thought 
and  his  style  of  writing.  He  constructed  his  own  ideas  as  ho  criti- 
cised the  opinions  of  others.  When  apparently  most  dependent  on 
others,  he  is  actually  asserting  his  own  originality.  His  three  most 
prominent  characteristics  are  a  practical  tendency,  a.  historical  posi- 
tivism and  a  philosophical  scepticism.  Moral  action  for  the  King- 
dom of  God,  based  on  religious  conviction  of  justification  by  God, 
finding  its  support  in  the  historical  facts  of  the  Christian  revelation, 
and  not  in  the  philosophical  ideas  of  a  speculative  theism — that  is  a 
brief  description  of  his  distinctive  position.  Although  he  does 
sometimes  yield  to  a  speculative  impulse,  yet  he  generally  remains 
faithful  to  this  practical  tendency  to  admit  into  theology  only 
what  Ls  directly  serviceable  for  the  religious  life.     Intense  and  sin- 


PAST  CENTURY'S  RELIGIOUS  LEADERS.  141 

cere  in  his  own  convictions,  he  was  inclined  to  exaggerate  the  differ- 
ence between  himself  and  his  critics,  and  so  involved  himself  in 
controversy  far  more  than  was  at  all  necessary.  Suspicious  of  all 
sentimentality  and  mysticism,  he  misunderstood  and  held  aloof  from 
many  forms  of  genuine  and  active  piety  in  the  churches,  which  he 
siunmarily  condemned  as  pietism;  and  so  greatly  restricted  the  range 
of  his  influence,  which  was  practically  confined  to  academic  circles, 
and  which  has  only  through  the  more  systematic  attitude  of  his  dis- 
ciples now  begun  to  affect  religious  thought  and  life  generally. 

In  1874,  on  the  publication  of  his  greatest  work,  he  began  to 
gather  disciples  around  him.  Harnack,  Herrmann  and  Schiirer 
were  at  this  time  drawn  to  him  by  (1)  his  return  to  the  historical 
revelation  of  the  person  of  Christ;  (2)  his  claim  for  the  indepen- 
dence of  theology  from  philosophical  tendencies;  (3)  his  attempt  to 
put  Christian  faith  beyond  the  reach  of  historical  criticism;  (4)  his 
practical  tendency.  For  several  years  there  seemed  to  be  a  funda- 
mental agreement  between  the  master  and  his  disciples.  With  the 
adhesion  of  Hiiring  and  Kaftan  in  1880  a  second  period  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  school  began,  marked  by  growing  divergence  within  and 
gathering  opposition  without.  Since  Ritschl's  death  in  1889  two 
tendencies  in  the  school  have  begun  to  assert  themselves.  The  one, 
represented  by  Harnack,  is  more  critical;  the  other,  expressed  in 
Herrmann  and  Kaftan,  is  more  positive;  and  it  is  uncertain  how 
much  longer  we  shall  be  able  to  speak  of  a  Ritschlian  school.  As 
the  agreement  in  the  school  is  rather  in  theological  method  than  in 
dogmatic  propositions,  it  is  difficult  to  define  precisely  the  common 
principles,  but  the  following  may  be  said  to  be  the  distinctive  fea- 
tures :  ( 1 )  The  exclusion  of  metaphysics  from  theology ;  ( 2 )  the 
rejection,  consequently,  of  speculative  theism;  (3)  the  condemnation 
of  ecclesiastical  dogma  as  an  illegitimate  mixture  of  theology  and 
metaphysics;  (4)  the  antagonism  shown  to  religious  mysticism  as  a 
metaphysical  type  of  piety;  (5)  the  practical  conception  of  religion; 
(6)  the  consequent  contrast  between  theoretical  and  religious  knowl- 
edge; (7)  the  emphasis  laid  on  the  historical  revelation  of  God  in 
Christ  as  opposed  to  any  natural  revelation;  (8)  the  use  of  the  idea 
of  the  Kingdom  of  God  as  the  regulative  principle  of  Christian  dog- 
matics; (9)  the  tendency  to  limit  theological  investigation  to  the 
contents  of  the  religious  consciousness. 

Ritschl  gathered  around  him  so  many  disciples,  and  these  have  be- 
come so  popular  and  influential,  because  he  reproduced  in  a  vigorous 


142  CHRISTENDOM. 

original  personalit}^  the  tendencies  of  his  age,  and  thus  was  able  to 
minister  to  its  necessities.  His  theology  is  "so  living  and  fruitful," 
because  it  "answers  to  the  needs  of  the  present  generation,"  which 
distrusts  philosophy,  believes  in  science,  has  been  troubled  by  his- 
torical criticism,  and  seeks  a  social  ideal,  and  so  demands  a  Gospel, 
independent  of  philosophy,  consistent  with  science,  unaffected  by 
historical  criticism,  and  sympathetic  to  social  ideals.  Temporary  and 
limited  as  may  be  the  justification  of  these  tendencies,  yet,  as  "the 
faith  once  delivered  to  the  saints"  must  be  spoken  to  each  age  in 
language  which  it  will  hear,  understand  and  welcome,  it  is  not  a  de- 
fect, but  a  merit,  of  Eitschlian  theology  that  it  is  seasonable  and 
opportune.  It  has  not  a  merely  ephemeral  value,  for  the  tendencies 
it  shows  and  the  necessities  it  meets  are  not  fleeting  fashions  and 
wayward  whims,  but  are  rooted  deeply  and  firmly  in  the  soil  of 
thought  and  life  of  the  age.  The  older  dogmatism,  which  at  one 
time  was  just  as  seasonable  and  opportune,  has  lost  credit  and  influ- 
ence among  most  thoughtful  men,  and  the  pressing  need  of  the  pres- 
ent moment  is  a  reconstruction  of  Christian  theology.  Because 
Eitschl  and  his  followers  have  attempted  this  with  large  intelligence 
and  deep  sincerity,  we  may  confidently  claim  for  him  the  place  of  a 
religious  leader. 

The  merits  of  the  Eitschlian  theology  are  these :  In  its  method 
it  recognizes  the  authority  of  the  New  Testament  as  a  witness  to  the 
contents  and  character  of  the  Christian  faith;  it  assigns  to  Jesus 
Christ  the  central  position  and  the  supreme  value  in  the  revelation 
of  God  to  man ;  and  it  insists  on  religious  experience  as  the  essential 
condition  of  theological  construction.  In  its  opposition  to  specula- 
tive rationalism,  on  the  one  hand,  it  asserts  the  personality  of  God, 
the  reality  of  sin  and  guilt,  and  of  grace  and  miracle,  the  unique 
value  of  Christ  as  revealing  God,  and  the  essential  significance  of  the 
Christian  community.  It  has,  on  the  other  hand,  legitimately  ex- 
posed and  condemned  what  is  unsound  in  some  forms  of  pietism. 
Its  defects,  briefly  stated,  are  as  follows :  It  does  not  recognize  the 
necessity  for  unity  of  thought,  and  thus  the  legitimacy  of  philosophy 
as  an  ally  of  theology.  Consequently,  much  of  its  criticism  of  ecclesi- 
astical dogma  is  misdirected.  In  condemning  what  is  unsound  in 
religious  mysticism  it  seems  to  set  itself  in  opposition  to  the  essential 
necessity  of  the  religious  life — intimate  and  constant  communion  with 
God.  ]t  fails  to  appropriate  all  the  contents  of  the  Christian  reve- 
lation, being  led  by  its  too  narrow  conception  of  religion,  and  its  un- 


PAST  CENTUKY'S  RELIGIOUS  LEADERS.  143 

due  restriction  of  the  range  of  Christian  experience,  to  neglect  or  re- 
ject facts  or  truths  that  do  nourish  and  exercise  faith.  In  avoiding 
a  speculative  treatment  of  Christian  doctrine  it  often  refuses  to  give 
the  rational  explanation  which  completes  the  empirical  account  of  the 
objects  of  faith,  and  so  arrests  theological  inquiry  at  an  earlier  stage 
than  the  interests  of  religion  even  demand,  as  notably  in  the  doctrine 
of  the  person  of  Christ. 

While  Ritsehl  himself  seriously  modified  or  entirely  rejected  some 
of  the  generally  accepted  evangelical  positions,  many  of  his  disciples 
liave  not  followed  him  in  this;  and  for  the  most  part  are  in  closer 
contact  and  more  vital  sympathy  with  the  common  religious  life  of 
the  Gennan  churches,  in  which  the  Eitschlian  school  is  a  reviving 
influence.  The  hope  may  be  cherished  that  the  more  positive  ten- 
dency in  the  school  will  be  so  developed  as  to  give  us  a  theology  which, 
while  not  less  receptive  of,  and  responsive  to,  contemporary  phases 
of  thought,  will  yet  preserve  more  completely,  and  exhibit  more  ade- 
quately, the  Christian  revelation  in  its  permanence  as  divine  and  its 
adaptability  as  human. 

As  a  number  of  English-speaking  divinity  students  visit  the  Ger- 
man universities,  and  many  British  and  American  theologians  read 
German  theological  literature,  the  Eitschlian  influence  was  felt  in 
the  British  Isles  and  the  United  States  before  English  translations 
of  the  Eitschlian  literature  began  to  attract  general  attention.  The 
translation  of  the  first  volume  of  Eitschl's  "Justification  and  Eecon- 
ciliation"  seems  to  have  made  no  impression.  A  criticism  of  Ritsehl, 
Stahlin's  "Ivant,  Lotze  and  Eitschl,"  ineffective  through  its  violence, 
when  translated  in  1889,  stirred  no  interest.  Only  when  transla- 
tions of  Kaftan's  "The  Truth  of  the  Christian  Eeligion"  (1894), 
Herrmann's  "The  Communion  of  the  Christian  with  God"  (1895), 
and  Harnack's  "History  of  Dogma"  (1894-1900),  )  appeared,  did  the 
interest  in  the  movement  become  more  general.  Probably  Professor 
Orr  has  done  more  than  any  other  writer  to  spread  knowledge  about 
Eitschl,  and  the  wide  range  of  his  influence  makes  it  all  the  more 
regrettable  that  his  judgment  is  so  unfavorable.  The  adverse  criti- 
cisms of  the  Eitschlian  theology  in  so  popular  a  work  as  Professor 
Denny's  "Studies  in  Theology"  has  still  more  widely  extended  the 
prejudice  against  this  school.  The  writer  of  this  article  has  en- 
deavored in  his  book  on  "The  Eitschlian  Theology"  to  show  Ritsehl 
in  a  more  favorable  light,  and  so  to  win  for  him  the  attention  which 
he  deserves.     Professor  Swing,  in  a  brief  study  of  the  theology  of 


144  CHRISTENDOM. 

Eitsehl,  recently  published,  goes  much  further  in  unqualified  praise. 
Articles  for  and  against  the  movement  are  becoming  common  in 
theological  magazines.  The  translation  of  the  most  important  of  the 
three  volumes  of  "Justification  and  Keconciliation/'  which  appeared 
some  months  ago,  is  greatly  stimulating  the  interest  in  what  is  in- 
creasingly being  felt  to  be  a  timely  and  helpful  influence.  When  the 
intellectual  conditions  of  the  age  are  estranging  so  many  thoughtful 
men  from  the  faith  of  the  Christian  Church,  what  seeks  to  be  an 
apologetic  "in  relief  of  doubt"  and  in  help  of  faith,  demands  at  least 
patient  and  unprejudiced  study.  It  is  not  probable,  nor  is  it  de- 
sirable, that  theology  in  English-speaking  countries  should  be  domi- 
nated by  Ritschl;  but  it  wall  be  profitable  for  all  theologians  to  get 
suggestion  and  stimulus  from  contact  with  so  vigorous  a  personality, 
so  original  a  thinker,  and  so  genuine  a  Christian. 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS :     Alexander  V.  G.  Allen. 

Phillips  Brooks  was  bom  in  Boston  in  1835,  and  on  both  sides 
of  his  family  was  the  heir  of  a  long  line  of  distinguished  Puritan 
ancestry.  When  he  was  four  years  old  the  family  became  connected 
with  the  Episcopal  Church.  He  graduated  from  Harvard  College 
in  1855,  whence  he  went  to  the  Theological  Seminary  in  Virginia, 
graduating  there  in  1859,  and  at  once  entering  upon  the  ministry  as 
rector  of  the  Church  of  the  Advent,  in  Philadelphia.  In  1862  he 
was  called  to  the  Church  of  the  Holy  Trinity  in  Philadelphia,  and  in 
1869  he  became  rector  of  Trinity  Church,  Boston,  holding  this  posi- 
tion until  his  election  as  Bishop  of  Massachusetts  in  1891.  He  died 
in  1893  at  the  age  of  fifty-seven.  His  published  writings  include 
eight  volumes  of  sermons,  the  Bohlen  Lectures  on  the  "Influence  of 
Jesus,"  lectures  on  "Toleration,"  etc.  Since  his  death  his  miscel- 
laneous writings  have  been  collected  in  one  volume  with  the  title  of 
"Essays  and  Addresses."  His  biography  appeared  in  two  volumes  in 
1900. 

The  distinctive  work  of  Phillips  Brooks  was  mainly  done  in  the 
pulpit,  which  he  occupied  as  a  conspicuous  throne  for  more  than 
thirty  years.  His  place  in  history  is  among  the  few  greatest  preach- 
ers whom  the  Christian  Church  acknowledges  from  its  beginning. 
In  his  preaching  he  resorted  to  no  sensational  methods,  either  of  voice 


PAST  CENTURY'S  RELIGIOUS  LEADERS.  145 

or  matter,  in  order  to  arrest  attention  or  enforce  his  message.  He 
followed  the  conventionalities  of  the  pulpit,  turning  them  into 
sources  of  strength.  He  was  pre-eminently  a  preacher  to  his  own 
age,  an  age  which  had  become  doubtful  in  regard  to  supreme  spir- 
itual verities  and  found  the  formulas  of  the  church  irrational  or 
distasteful.  To  such  an  age  he  commended  Christianity  and  the 
religious  life,  faith  in  God  and  in  man,  with  an  almost  irresistible 
power,  compelling  attention  to  his  utterance  by  a  singular  gift  of  elo- 
quence and  by  personal  fascination.  Pie  became  known,  revered  and 
loved  throughout  America,  in  England  also,  which  he  often  visited, 
and,  indeed,  by  his  printed  sermons  his  fame  and  influence  extended 
throughout  the  world. 

He  could  not  have  accomplished  so  great  a  result  had  he  not  been 
peculiarly  adapted  to  his  task.  He  understood  his  age ;  he  was  pro- 
foundly versed  in  literature  which  is  the  expression  of  the  soul  of 
humanity ;  he  knew  even  the  secret  springs  of  the  discontent  which 
was  undermining  faith.  His  mind  was  as  capacious  as  his  heart, 
embracing  with  its  comprehensive  grasp  the  range  and  significance 
of  all  human  interests.  His  natural  preference  would  have  been  for 
the  life  of  the  scholar  working  at  the  world's  problems,  or  the  literary 
man  uttering  in  the  best  forms  the  convictions  and  instincts  of  man. 
But  Ms  gifts  in  these  directions  he  subordinated  or  held  in  check  and 
reserved  himself  for  the  work  of  the  preacher,  a  task  whereto  he  was 
appointed  not  only  by  formal  ordination,  but  by  the  voice  of  the 
world  about  him,  which  refused  to  allow  him  to  abandon  the  pulpit. 

While  he  was  alive  the  world  wondered  at  his  mysterious  power, 
exerted  apparently  by  no  effort ;  many  also  were  the  attempts  made 
to  fathom  the  secret  of  his  strength  and  fascination,  felt  alike  by 
cultured  and  uncultured  people,  by  those  of  the  highest  education 
and  by  the  lowest  and  poorest.  ISTow  that  he  is  gone,  the  secret  still 
baffles  the  inquiries  into  its  sources.  But  at  least  it  is  possible  to 
determine  the  distinctive,  predominant  character  of  his  message. 
And  in  describing  his  work  as  a  leader  of  men  we  need  only  fall  back 
upon  phrases  familiar,  so  familiar  that  they  might  seem  to  have  lost 
their  meaning.  Phillips  Brooks  was  an  instance  of  the  constraining 
love  of  Christ,  as  with  St.  Paul ;  and  he  had  the  love  of  human  souls. 
These  two  qualifications  were  his  in  an  extraordinary  degree  beyond 
any  other  man  of  his  generation.  To  these  two  endowments  every 
sermon  that  he  preached  bore  witness,  never  obscured  by  the  literary 
charm  with  which  he  enveloped  his  theme. 


146  CHRISTENDOM. 

In  the  preaching  of  Christ  as  the  Saviour  of  the  world  he  followed 
the  evangelical  method  and  was  true  to  whatever  was  essential  in  its 
spirit.  And  yet  he  differed  also,  for  he  placed  the  supreme  stress  on 
the  person  of  Christ,  not  upon  any  doctrine  regarding  him,  although 
he  held  the  traditional  doctrines  as  true.  Christ  to  him  was  the  one 
towering  personality  in  the  world's  history,  who  had  given  effect  to 
his  teaching  by  the  power  of  his  personality,  and  had  thereby  im- 
planted in  humanity  the  seed  of  spiritual  life.  To  come  into  contact 
with  Christ  as  a  still  living  personality,  whether  in  the  church  or  in 
Scripture,  or  in  the  lives  of  faithful  disciples,  in  all  ages,  was  to  be 
born  again  and  to  be  alive  unto  God.  To  be  in  Christ  was  to  fulfil 
all  the  rich  purpose  of  manhood,  the  varied  scope  of  regenerated 
humanity;  to  achieve  the  end  of  life.  Although  every  sermon  was 
devoted  to  setting  forth  this  truth,  yet  so  diverse  were  the  variations 
upon  it  that  his  preaching  never  became  monotonous,  but  was  per- 
ennially fresh  and  absorbing.  We  must  go  behind  the  preacher, 
therefore,  to  the  man  himself,  in  order  to  get  any  comprehension  of 
the  secret  of  his  power.  When  we  do  so  we  find  a  soul  aflame  with 
the  love  of  Christ,  in  a  faith  simple  and  yet  with  the  intensity  of 
■devotion  which  recalls  the  "ages  of  faith''  before  yet  men  had  learned 
to  doubt  regarding  spiritual  realities.  Although  living  in  the  mod- 
ern world  and  himself  a  modern  man,  conversant  with  the  best  of 
modern  literature,  enjoying  life  as  only  a  man  with  his  rare  endow- 
ments could  do,  yet  we  can  easily  think  of  him  as  at  home  in  the  age 
of  the  crusades,  when  the  great  ideal  was  to  do  something  for  the 
honor  and  glory  of  Christ,  when  a  man  gladly  gave  up  his  life  in 
the  effort  to  retrieve  the  Holy  Sepulchre  from  disgrace.  The  man 
whom  he  most  resembles  in  history  is  St.  Francis  of  Assisi,  who  illus- 
trated devotion  to  Christ  in  such  personal  and  practical  ways,  to  an 
extent  never  seen  before,  that  it  almost  seemed  as  if  he  were  a  "sec- 
ond Christ."  Such  was  the  type  of  Phillips  Brooks.  We  may  see 
affinities  in  him  to  other  great  leaders  in  the  church,  but  he  differs 
from  them  in  that  he  does  not  aim  to  establish  a  new  doctrine  or  a 
new  order.  He  proclaimed  no  renovation  in  theology  as  essential 
before  the  great  work  of  salvation  could  begin.  Ho  simply  showed 
men  who  Christ  was,  entering  into  His  spirit  and  making  Him  live 
again  in  the  modern  world. 

All  this  seems  so  simple  and  familiar  that  one  might  fail  to  see 
beneath  it  the  evidence  of  profound  thought  and  observation,  a  deep 
philosophical  purpose,  the  intention  to  bring  back  the  world  again 


PAST  CENTURY'S  EELIGIOUS  LEADERS.  147 

to  its  natural  centre,  or  to  the  orbit  from  which  it  had  wandered. 
The  journals  and  notebooks  of  Pliillips  Brooks  reveal  an  intellectual 
constitution  capable  of  deep,  clear  insight  into  truths  not  obvious  to 
the  many — a  subtle  mind  with  a  capacity  for  fine  distinctions,  a 
poetic  mind  finding  in  poetry  the  truest  interpretation  of  life,  but 
above  all  a  man  forever  brooding  on  the  mystery  of  life.  Conjoined 
with  this  was  his  gift  of  incessant  observation  of  life,  whether  in 
books  or  among  living  men.  His  well-trained  mind,  his  classical  cul- 
ture, his  wide  reading,  combined  with  his  other  gifts  to  fit  him  for  a 
judge  of  what  the  world  of  his  time  needed  and  unconsciously  de- 
manded, was,  indeed,  waiting  for,  without  knowing  the  sources  of  its 
unrest.  He  came  to  his  age  and  pointed  to  Christ  as  the  consum- 
mate personality  in  whom  was  the  way,  the  truth,  and  the  life.  What 
all  men  wanted  and  needed  was  a  leader  whom  they  could  follow, 
whose  personal  influence  would  reach  every  man  in  the  ranks,  and  not 
only  give  the  example,  but  the  power  to  accomplish  righteousness  and 
salvation.  Phillips  Brooks  did  not  enter  much  into  argument,  but 
he  pointed  to  the  one  solvent  for  the  difficulties  of  his  time.  In  New 
England  and  wherever  the  transcendental  philosophy  had  gone,  there 
had  resulted  an  over-intellectualism,  whose  influence  in  the  end  was 
spiritual  bewilderment  and  loss.  There  had  been  an  attempt  to  ac- 
complish too  much,  so  that  the  pinions  of  the  soul  had  grown  weary 
and  men  were  falling  again  to  the  earth  in  disenchantment. 

In  his  book  on  "The  Influence  of  Jesus,"  Brooks  pointed  to  the 
reality,  tracing  the  power  of  the  personal  Christ,  in  history  or  in 
individual  experience ;  for  apart  from  the  character  and  the  person 
of  Christ,  his  teaching  would  be  of  no  avail.  It  was  life,  not  thought 
or  speculation,  for  which  the  world  was  hungering,  and  in  Him  was 
life.  A  certain  spirit  of  fatalism  had  worked  its  way  into  the  con- 
sciousness of  men,  and  he  presented  Christ  as  the  embodiment  of 
human  freedom.  With  the  agnostic,  who  thought  th^t  nothing 
could  be  known  or  demonstrated  as  true  in  regard  to  these  things, 
he  did  not  reason,  but  he  pointed  to  Christ,  who  believed  them — God 
and  immortality ;  and  there  he  left  them  under  the  influence  of  One 
who  must  have  known.  He  was  in  sympathy  with  the  "New  Theol- 
ogy," as  it  was  called,  but  he  maintained  that  no  mere  change  of 
opinion  in  theology  would  make  men  better  or  more  religious.  He 
was  a  sturdy  realist  in  an  age  confused  by  the  multiplicity  of  ideals. 
At  a  time  when  intellect  was  overrated  as  a  means  of  reaching  the 
truth  he  maintained  that  the  whole  man,  with  organic  totality  of  his 


148  CHRISTENDOM. 

powers,  was  appealed  to  by  Christ,  and  that  the  intellect  alone  did  not 
sufl5ce.  The  weakness  of  the  hour  called  for  a  reassertion  of  God 
as  the  commanding  will  in  the  universe,  so  that  the  highest  glory  of 
man  lay  in  obedience,  in  the  possession  of  a  responding  will. 

With  such  a  message  it  is  not  strange  that  the  world  responded  to 
Phillips  Brooks  in  an  unusual  way.  The  devotions  of  countless 
thousands  went  forth  to  him  as  to  a  heaven-sent  leader.  More  par- 
ticularly was  this  feeling  manifested  among  the  various  denomina- 
tions of  Christians.  He  seemed  to  break  down  every  barrier  which 
divided  men  from  each  other,  till  nothing  seemed  more  real  than 
Christian  unity.  He  had  no  faith  in  ecclesiastical  expedients  or 
adjustments  as  means  by  which  the  prayer  of  Christ  could  be  ful- 
filled in  order  to  the  one  fold  and  one  Shepherd.  But  in  the  personal 
Christ  and  in  allegiance  to  Him,  so  far  as  it  was  progressingly  real- 
ized, lay  the  reality  of  the  brotherhood  of  men  in  church  or  state.  In 
all  this  he  was  breaking  down  no  creeds,  nor  forswearing  the  formu- 
las of  his  own  church.  He  saw  beneath  the  creeds  to  their  essential 
meaning,  recognizing  in  them  all  a  spiritual  purpose,  not  for  the  dis- 
franchisement of  men,  but  toward  their  larger  freedom.  He  was 
at  home  in  the  theological  distinctions  and  refinements  of  contro- 
versy, nor  did  he  scorn  them  as  futile  or  meaningless,  but  he  also 
simplified  what  had  become  to  many  a  picture  of  confusion  and  hope- 
less contradiction,  by  the  presentation  of  Christ  as  in  Himself  His 
religion.  ''Christ  was  Christianity,"  to  use  his  own  expression. 
When  he  died  there  was,  as  an  observer  of  his  funeral  remarked,  a 
more  signal  manifestation  of  Christian  unity  than  the  world  had 
ever  seen  before. 


DWIGHT  LYMAN  MOODY :     A.  C.  Dixon,  D.D. 

[Dwlght  L.  Moody  wonld  easily  have  reached  the  first  rauk  in  any  vocation 
in  life.  In  business  he  would  have  been  a  Vanderbilt  or  a  Rockefeller;  in 
politics,  a  senator,  cabinet  minister  or  president;  in  the  army  or  navy,  a 
Grant  or  a  Farragut.  He  was  born  to  command.  He  swayed  an  audience  of 
ten  or  twenty  thousands  of  people  as  by  magic — not  alone  by  his  eloquence, 
but  before  he  began  to  speak,  by  his  personality.  His  judgment  was  as  nearly 
infallible  as  seems  ever  given  to  man :  his  poise,  common  sense,  instinctive 
grasp  of  a  situation,  foresight  of  results,  were  simply  wonderful.  In  the 
technical  or  scholastic  sense  he  had  never  been  educated  ;  but  if  education 
means  gaining  the  best  use  of  all  one's  powers,  Mr.  Moody  was  a  superbly 
educated   man.     He   made    no   false   motions.     Every   blow   that   he  struck 


PAST  CENTURY'S  RELIGIOUS  LEADERS.  149 

carried  its  whole  weight.  Every  sentence  that  he  uttered  counted  for  the  full 
value  of  his  great  personality.  Though  most  widely  known  as  an  evangelist, 
a  preacher  of  power  equal  to  the  best  traditions  of  the  pulpit  in  any  age,  yet 
how  far-reaching  were  his  activities !  The  schools  of  Northfield  and  Mt.  Her- 
mon  and  Chicago- — possibly  his  best  monument — testify  to  his  zeal  for  edu- 
cation. The  valuation  of  the  grounds  and  buildings  is  as  follows  :  Seminary, 
$376,010;  Mount  Herraon,  $450,932;  Bible  Institute,  $195,301,  a  total  of 
$1,021,243.  How  wisely  and  indefatigably  he  used  the  press !  How  eagerly 
he  labored  to  put  good  reading  into  the  cells  of  all  our  prisons !  How  his 
voice  rang  out  for  a  pure  patriotism  !  How  prudently  he  encouraged  every 
genuine  reform !  And  how  sweetly  shrewd  he  was ;  how  quick  to  penetrate 
every  sham ;  how  righteouslj'  intolerant  of  hypocrisy !  If  one  characteristic 
more  than  any  other  marks  Mr.  Moody  and  his  work,  it  is  perfect  genuineness. 
— Teunis  S.  Hamlin,  D.  D.  "The  Congregationalist, "  Jan.  11,  1900. — Ed.] 
*  *  * 

DwiGHT  L.  Moody  was  born  in  ISTorthfield,  Mass.,  February  5, 
1837,  and  died  at  the  same  place  December  22,  1899.  The  Rev.  Dr. 
H.  G.  Weston,  president  of  Crozer  Theological  Seminary,  in  his  ad- 
dress at  the  funeral  of  Mr.  Moody,  said :  "I  would  rather  be  D.  L. 
Moody  dead  in  his  coffin  than  any  other  man  living  on  earth."  And 
Dr.  Weston,  over  seventy  years  of  age,  is  known  to  be  very  careful 
in  the  use  of  words.     Such  men  are  not  given  to  exaggeration. 

Let  us  see  what  there  was  about  D.  L.  Moody  which  justifies  so 
conservative  a  man  in  making  such  a  radical  statement. 

D.  L.  Moody  was  honest.  He  hated  shams.  He  could  not  bear 
pretense.  The  first  question  he  asked  about  everything  was,  "Is  it 
right  ?  Will  Christ  approve  it  ?"  He  would  do  nothing  that  he  did 
not  believe  to  be  right  before  God,  and  when  he  decided  that  a  course 
was  right,  the  consciousness  of  its  righteousness  caused  him  to  throw 
all  the  energy  of  his  great  soul  and  vigorous  body  into  it. 

D.  L.  Moody  was  humble.  He  never  boasted  of  his  own  powers. 
In  early  life  he  was  informed  that  he  had  none  to  boast  of.  When 
he  talked  in  prayer  meetings  his  friends  approached  him  and  urged 
him  to  remain  silent,  for  they  thought  he  had  no  gift  of  public 
speech.  This  early  discouragement  may  have  had  something  to  do 
with  his  self-depreciation,  but  I  think  that  the  secret  of  his  humility 
was  largely  in  the  fact  that  he  always  had  on  hand  great  enterprises 
for  God.  He  was  not  easily  satisfied.  What  had  been  done  was 
only  the  stepping  stone  to  greater  achievement.  When  a  man  be- 
comes satisfied  with  what  he  has  done  in  life,  he  is  apt  to  grow  proud 
of  it.  But  Moody  always  stood  in  the  presence  of  a  great  unfinished 
work.    The  magnitude  of  it  made  him  look  away  from  himself  to 


150  CHRISTENDOM. 

God.  His  great  heart  took  in  the  United  States  and  the  world.  He 
prayed  for  a  revival  in  the  nation.  When  he  came  into  a  city  its 
millions  of  souls  burdened  his  heart.  He  loved  crowds  because 
crowds  gave  him  a  great  opjiortunity  for  doing  good.  A  thousand 
conversions  filled  him  with  joy,  but  lie  could  not  be  content  with  a 
thousand  when  there  were  hundreds  of  thousands  still  unsaved. 
Great  preacher  as  he  was,  he  was  never  satisfied  with  his  senuons, 
because  there  was  in  his  mind  an  ideal  higher  than  anything  he  had 
ever  reached. 

D.  L.  Moody  was  practical.  It  was  truly  said  of  him,  "He  hitched 
his  wagon  to  a  star,''  but  he  kept  the  wheels  on  earth  and  its  axles 
well  oiled.  He  never  made  the  mistake  of  the  philosopher  who, 
while  gazing  at  the  stars,  fell  into  the  ditch  at  his  feet.  He  worked 
out  his  own  salvation  with  fear  and  trembling,  while  God  worked 
within  him  to  will  and  to  do.  Enthusiasm  never  ran  away  with  his 
judgment. 

D.  L.  Moody  was  hopeful.  I  never  saw  him  discouraged;  if  he 
was  he  never  mentioned  it.  To  him  better  times  were  always  ahead. 
His  face  was  toward  the  sunrise.  He  looked  not  at  the  darkness,  but 
at  the  stars.  He  gazed  not  at  the  clouds,  but  on  the  rainbow.  His 
hope  was  in  God,  and  there  was  nothing  too  great  for  his  God. 

D.  L.  Moody  was  brave.  God  said  to  Joshua  while  he  stood  in 
the  presence  of  danger,  "Be  of  good  courage,"  and  the  same  God  said 
to  Solomon  while  he  stood  before  great  difficulties,  "Be  of  good 
courage."  It  takes  as  great  bravery  to  meet  difficulties  as  danger. 
D.  L.  Moody  would  doubtless  have  been  a  brave  soldier,  going  wher- 
ever duty  called,  but  he  was  not  called  upon  to  do  this.  He  did 
stand,  however,  frequently  in  the  presence  of  great  difficulties,  and 
they  never  made  him  quail.  He  could  stand  alone  with  God.  He 
delighted  to  consult  with  his  brethren,  and  had  an  ear  open  to  coun- 
sel, but  his  final  decision  was  reached  upon  his  knees,  and  when  he 
took  a  stand  nothing  could  move  him.  His  denunciation  of  sin  in 
high  places  brought  upon  him  severe  criticism,  but  he  did  not  flinch ; 
he  simply  repeated  his  charges  with  greater  emphasis.  He  sought 
the  favor  and  the  praise  of  no  man  at  the  expense  of  conscience. 
He  was  popular  with  the  rich  and  with  the  poor,  because  in  his 
preaching  he  sought  to  please  no  one  but  God. 

D.  L.  Moody  was  tolerant,  but  not  through  indifference,  and  'Tiis 
tolerance  was  not  the  least  of  his  remarkable  characteristics,"  says 
"Zion's  Herald."     "Though  a  man  of  clear  and  decided  religious 


PAST  CE?sTTURY'S  RELIGIOUS  LEADERS.  151 

tenets,  and  though  he  held  his  convictions  with  tenacity,  yet  he  wasr 
comprehensive  and  considerate  of  variant  theological  opinions.  Con- 
servative in  his  opinions  of  the  Bible,  yet  he  was  so  large  and  sa 
tolerant  that  he  could  'find'  Prof.  Henry  Drummond  and  give  him 
Northfield  for  a  pulpit,  sending  him  forth  as  a  'son  in  the  Gospel.' 
And  later,  when  terror-stricken  defenders  of  the  faith  were  af- 
frighted at  the  utterances  of  Prof.  George  Adam  Smith,  Moody  in- 
vited him  to  Northfield  to  preach  and  to  lecture.  He  was  a  robust^ 
expulsive,  apostolic  disciple,  a  combination  of  much  of  the  best  of 
Peter  and  Paul,  having  Peter's  burning  zeal  and  consecration,  h\it 
without  his  infirmities,  for  he  never  did  nor  could  he  have  betrayed 
his  Lord;  not  possessing  Paul's  culture  of  philosophy,  but  having 
his  charity,  brotherliness,  and  largeness  of  outlook  for  the  Kingdom 
of  Christ,  and,  like  Paul,  'abundant  in  labors.'  The  world  is  inex- 
pressibly richer  for  the  life  which  he  has  lived  and  the  work  which  he 
has  done." 

D.  L.  Moody  was  great  in  the  Christly  sense.  Jesus  said,  "If  any 
would  be  great  among  you,  let  him  become  the  servant  of  all" ;  and 
the  mission  of  Moody  was  to  serve.  His  love  of  Jesus  was  a  passion, 
and  he  loved  people  because  Jesus  loved  them.  All  he  was  and  had 
was  on  the  altar  of  sacrifice.  He  never  spared  himself.  No  one 
who  knew  him  ever  accused  him  of  seeking  money  for  himself.  He 
lived  and  died  a  poor  man,  while  he  raised  and  passed  on  millions 
for  the  uplifting  of  others.  The  fact  that  he  was  without  early 
educational  advantages  led  him  to  sympathize  with  poor  young  men 
and  women,  and  to  establish  colleges  where  they  could  secure  edu- 
cation at  small  cost.  A  large  book  might  be  written  on  Moody  as  a 
builder.  There  is  scarcely  a  great  city  in  Christendom  which  has 
not  some  building  erected  with  money  raised  in  response  to  his 
prayer  and  work. 

"D.  L.  Moody,"  says  "The  Outlook,''  "was  a  religious  preacher,  not 
a  theological  teacher ;  and  the  character  of  his  work  is  to  be  measured, 
not  by  its  theological  structure,  but  by  its  religious  power.  The  dif- 
ference ought  to  be  as  self-evident  as  it  is  simple.  The  theological 
questions  are  such  as  these :  What  was  the  nature  of  the  infiuence 
exerted  by  the  Spirit  of  God  on  the  minds  of  the  writers  of  the  Bible? 
What  is  the  relation  of  Jesus  Christ  to  the  Infinite  and  Eternal 
Ruler  of  the  universe  ?  How  do  the  life,  passion,  and  death  of  Jesus 
Christ  effect  a  saving  influence  on  the  character  and  destiny  of  man- 
kind ?     The  religious  questions  are :  How  can  I  best  use  the  Bible 


152  CHEISTENDOM. 

to  make  better  men  and  women?  What  is  Jesus  Christ  to  me,  and 
what  can  He  be  to  m}'  fellow  men?  What  can  I  do  to  make  avail- 
able to  myself  the  influence  of  His  life  and  character  in  securing 
a  purer  character  and  a  diviner  life  for  myself  and  for  those  about 
me  ?  It  would  be  difficult  to  name  any  man  in  the  present  half  cen- 
tury Avho  has  done  so  much  to  give  the  power  of  spiritual  vision 
to  men  who  having  eyes  saw  not  and  having  ears  heard  not,  to  give 
hope  to  men  who  were  living  in  a  dull  despair,  or  an  even  more 
fatally  didl  self-content,  and  to  give  that  love  wliich  is  righteousness 
and  that  righteousness  which  is  love  to  men  who  were  before  un- 
qualifiedly egotistical  and  selfish.  With  him  the  theology  was  never 
an  end,  always  an  instrument.  If  any  liberal  is  inclined  to  criticise 
his  theology,  let  him  consider  well  with  himself  whether  he  is  doing 
as  good  work  for  humanity  with  his  more  modern  and,  let  us  say, 
better  instruments." 

D.  L.  Moody  was  a  prophet.  He  spoke  for  God.  His  message 
was  the  whole  Bible.  He  believed  it  to  be  the  Word  of  God.  It 
was  easy  for  him  to  accept  its  miracles,  for  the  God  who  wrote  the 
Book  was  equal  to  anything  that  it  claimed  for  him.  Like  Spur- 
geon,  he  was  never  ordained  by  the  laying  on  of  human  hands.  His 
ordination  was  of  God.  *'The  hand  of  the  Lord  was  upon  him."  He 
had  no  sympathy  with  the  critics  who  tear  the  Bible  to  pieces.  There 
were  among  them  some  of  his  friends,  whom  he  loved  in  spite  of 
their  errors.  But  his  friendship  for  them  never  made  him  swerve 
from  his  loyalty  to  the  Bible.  He  believed  in  God  the  Holy  Spirit, 
who  inspired  men  to  write  the  Book,  and  who  is  with  us  ready  to 
endue  with  power  in  preaching  it.  Moody  did  not  despise  other 
books,  and  he  read  more  widely  than  some  people  suppose.  But  all 
other  books  compared  with  the  Book  were  weak  things.  He  was 
emphatically  a  man  of  one  book,  and  because  he  honored  God's  Word, 
God  honored  him. 

D.  L.  Moody  had  a  message  of  salvation  by  grace.  He  believed 
that  sinners  are  saved,  if  saved  at  all,  by  the  unmerited  favor  of 
God.  He  magnified  mercy.  His  was  a  gospel  of  blood.  I  heard 
him  say  that  he  once  went  to  a  place  in  Great  Britain  where  he  was 
told  by  one  of  the  prominent  preachers  that  it  would  never  do  for 
him  to  say  much  about  blood  in  that  place.  Moody  told  him  with- 
out hesitation  that  he  would  preach  it  in  every  sermon,  and  he  mag- 
nified atonement  through  the  blood  imtil  the  whole  town  was  shaken 
by  the  power  of  God.     He  frequently  said  that  when  a  preacher 


I'AST  CENTURY'S  KELICIOUS  LEADERS.  153 

ceased  to  preach  the  blood,  he  began  to  be  powerless  in  his  ministry. 
The  great  effort  of  his  life  was  to  induce  sinners  to  take  shelter 
under  the  blood.  His  sermons  on  the  blood  have  won  thousands  to 
Jesus.  He  denounced  as  a  fatal  error  the  illusion  that  men  can  be 
saved  by  character  without  the  blood  of  Christ. 

D.  L.  Moody  brought  to  the  world  a  message  of  regeneration.  He 
magnified  the  work  of  the  Spirit  in  the  new  birth.  He  was  not  a 
reformer:  he  thought  little  of  the  efforts  at  reforming  society  by 
programme  or  law.  With  him  the  regeneration  of  the  individual 
was  everything.  When  men  are  saved,  they  will  become  good  citi- 
zens and  good  fathers.  He  believed  with  all  his  heart  in  instan- 
taneous conversion.  He  declared  that  somewhere  between  the  top  of 
that  sj'camore  tree  and  the  ground  Zaccheus  became  a  Christian. 
He  emphasized  the  sudden  conversion  of  the  jailer,  the  eunuch,  the 
three  thousand  on  the  day  of  Pentecost.  Indeed,  he  believed  in  no 
other  kind  of  conversion  than  that  which  comes  suddenly ;  that  it  is 
not  possible  to  cultivate  the  old  nature  into  a  state  of  grace ;  we  musl 
receive  the  Divine  nature  by  an  act  of  faith.  The  proof  of  this 
reception  and  the  evidence  to  the  individual  consciousness  may  come 
gradually,  but  every  one  accepts  Jesus  at  some  definite  time. 

D.  L.  Moody  brought  to  the  weary,  burdened  toilers  of  earth  a 
message  of  heaven.  He  looked  forward  to  its  rest  and  its  righteous- 
ness. He  cared  little  for  this  world,  because  he  looked  for  "the  city 
which  hath  foundations,  whose  builder  and  maker  is  God."  His 
citizenship  was  in  heaven.  He  loved  his  home,  and  made  it  a  little 
heaven  on  earth.  His  wife  and  children  could  hardly  think  of  him 
as  the  great  man  that  he  was,  he  was  so  loving  and  gentle  and  ten- 
der. The  home  on  earth  he  prized,  but  the  home  in  heaven  he  prized 
more.  The  fallacy  so  prevalent  that  we  should  make  the  best  of  this 
world  and  leave  heaven  to  take  care  of  itself  received  no  sympathy 
from  him.  His  real  world  was  "the  building  of  God,  the  house  not 
made  with  hands,  eternal  in  the  heavens."  As  friend  after  friend 
passed  through  the  gates,  he  became  more  attached  to  the  "Father's 
House."  The  death  of  his  little  grandchild  broke  his  heart,  while 
it  brightened  heaven  and  made  him  more  willing  to  go. 

His  last  words  will  be  immortal :  "Earth  is  receding ;  heaven  is 
opening;  God  is  calling  me.  Do  not  call  me  back."  What  a  com- 
motion his  entrance  into  heaven  must  have  made !  While  on  earth 
he  preached  with  his  voice  to  millions  of  people,  and  through  his 
pen  to  millions  more.     How  many  millions  have  been  saved  through 


154 


CHRISTENDOM. 


his  words  and  life  no  one  can  tell,  but  certainly  he  received  an 
abundant  entrance  into  the  city  of  life  and  light.  He  has  seen  the 
King  in  His  beauty.  The  yearning  in  his  soul  that  he  might  be  like 
Him  has  been  satisfied. 


MOVEMENTS  CRITICAL  AND  ETHICAL, 


Prof.  George  H.  Schodde,  Ph.D., 

COLUMBUS. 

[Freedom  to  criticise  and  reconstruct  the  text  of  Holy  Scripture;  free- 
dom to  re-investigate  traditional  opinions  concerning  the  dates  and  the 
authorship  of  the  sacred  books  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament ;  freedom  to 
revise  and  amend  the  traditional  interpretation  of  their  contents  ;  freedom  to 
revise  and  amend  definitions  of  great  Christian  doctrines  by  whatever  vener- 
able authorities  the  definitions  may  be  sanctioned  ;  this  must  be  conceded — 
conceded  frankly,  not  under  compulsion,  but  with  the  full  consent  of  the 
judgment,  the  conscience  and  the  heart.  The  public  opinion  of  the  church 
should  be  friendly  to  intellectual  integrity  in  its  theological  scholars.  It 
is  better  that  they  should  reach  a  false  conclusion  by  fair  means  than  a  true 
one  by  foul.  Truth  itself  is  not  the  truth  to  the  man  who  has  been  dis- 
loyal to  his  intellectual  conscience  in  the  formation  of  his  belief. 

We  have  learned  much  from  the  saintly  theologians  of  past  generations ; 
we  may  learn  much  from  the  saintly  theologians  of  our  own  time;  and  we 
must  be  willing  to  learn,  or  God  will  not  give  us  new  teachers.  Yet  the 
fathers  were  not  infallible;  and  modern  theologians  ai-e  but  men.  We  have 
it  on  excellent  authority  that  even  general  councils  "may  err,  and  sometimes 
have  erred,  even  in  things  pertaining  to  God;"  nor  can  exemption  from  error 
be  claimed  for  great  critical  scholars  brilliant  with  genius  and  learning; 
they  must  consent  to  have  what  they  confidently  proclaim  as  "the  final  re- 
sults" of  criticism,  examined,  tested,  controverted,  and  sometimes  rejected 
by  their  successors, — R.  W.  Dale,  LL.D.,  "Fellowship  with  Christ,"  p.  109. — 

Ed.] 

*  *  * 

The  critical  movements  in  the  theological  world  during  the  nine- 
teenth century  all  find  their  common  bond  of  unity  in  the  noteworthy 
facts  that  they  concerned  themselves  not  about  any  particular  doc- 
trine or  doctrines  of  the  Scriptures,  but  that  the  Scriptures  them- 
selves constituted  the  debatable  ground  between  the  various  trends 
and  tendencies.  Essentially  the  purpose  of  critical  inquiry  has  been 
to  answer  the  question:  "What  are  the  Scriptures?"  These  have 
been  the  cynosure  of  all  eyes,  and  it  is  no  exaggeration  to  claim  that 
never  before  has  the  Written  Word  been  the  object  of  such  pene- 
trating and  subtle  investigation  as  has  been  the  case  during  the  past 
ten  decades.  The  canonical  books  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments 
have  been  the  central  problem  of  research  as  never  before. 

155 


156  CHRISTENDOM. 

Not  indeed  is  this  to  be  understood  as  though  the  Bible  had  never 
before  been  a  chief  concern  of  theological  investigation;  but  it  is 
a  fact  that  never  before  have  the  Scriptures  been  examined  so 
minutely  from  the  historical  and  literary  point  of  view  as  has  been 
done  in  our  day.  In  the  Reformation  period,  too,  they  were  the 
subject  of  the  most  vigorous  debate,  but  the  issue  at  stake  was  not 
the  origin  or  the  literary  character  and  development  of  the  Bibli- 
cal books,  but  the  authority  of  the  Bible  as  a  whole  over  against  the 
principle  of  tradition  as  taught  by  the  Roman  Catholic  Church.  The 
outcome  of  the  whole  discussion  was  the  formal  principle  of  the 
Reformation,  which  has  practically  controlled  Protestant  thought 
ever  since,  namely,  that  the  Scriptures  and  these  alone  are  the  source 
of  Christian  doctrines  and  morals.  That  the  discussion  of  that 
period  should  take  this  course  with  reference  to  the  Scriptures  was 
the  most  natural  and  necessary  thing  in  the  world.  Protestantism 
needed  a  sure  foundation  to  take  the  place  of  the  authority  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  hierarchy,  which  had  been  rejected,  and  found  this 
authority  and  basis  for  its  very  existence  in  the  Scriptures  as  the 
sure  revelation  of  God.  Then,  as  now,  the  fundamental  fact  was 
recognized  that  these  Scriptures  are  the  joint  product  of  two  factors, 
a  divine  and  a  human,  but  the  former  was  regarded  as  the  aJl-con- 
troUing  element  in  the  composition  of  the  Biblical  books,  that  the 
presence  and  activity  of  the  human  element  was  practically  elimin- 
ated. In  other  words,  the  Reformation  and  the  Reformers  saw 
in  the  Bible  only  the  Word  of  God,  which  because  it  was  such  could 
be  trusted  absolutely,  as  its  very  character  of  inerrancy  made  any 
appeal  to  other  sources  unnecessary  and  impossible.  The  practical 
interests  of  the  Reformation  prevailed  also  in  its  conception  and 
ideas  of  the  Scriptures.  Even  of  the  question  of  the  Old  Testament 
Apocrypha,  contained  in  the  Greek  or  Alexandrian,  but  not  in  the 
Hebrew  and  Palestinian  canon,  which  the  Protestant  Church  of  that 
period  rejected  as  not  belonging  to  the  real  Word  of  God,  there  is 
found  in  the  literature  of  the  period  practically  no  formal  discus- 
sion. Luther's  works  in  the  Erlangen  edition  fill  one  hundred  solid 
volumes,  yet  we  nowhere  have  from  his  pen  anything  like  critical  or 
historical  discussion  of  the  Apocrypha  or  other  literary  problem  of 
the  Scriptures. 

The  characteristic  peculiarity  of  the  Bible  work  done  by  the  schol- 
arship of  the  nineteenth  centur}  is  that  it  has  for  the  first  time  em- 
phasized to  the  fullest  extent  the  human  side  of  the  Scriptures. 


CRITICAL    MOVEMENTS.  157 

The  fact  has  been  recognized  as  never  before  that  although  holy 
men  of  God  wrote  as  they  were  moved  by  the  Spirit,  they  neverthe- 
less were  men ;  that  the  books  of  the  Bible  indelibly  show  the  impress 
of  a  human  as  well  as  a  divine  authorship;  that  these  books  all 
have  a  history.  To  determine  these  factors  and  to  do  justice  to  them 
in  formulating  any  definition  or  description  of  the  Biblical  books  has 
been  the  leading  ideal  of  the  critical  research  of  our  times.  This 
spirit  of  historical  inquiry  stands  in  the  closest  possible  touch  with 
the  general  trend  and  tendency  of  the  learned  research  of  the  day. 
Without  doubt  the  most  potent  agency  in  the  character  of  modern 
scholarship  has  been  the  idea  of  historical  development.  Essentially 
we  are  living  in  the  era  of  Darwin.  For  good  and  for  bad  this  trend 
has  made  itself  felt  in  the  Scriptural  investigations  of  the  century 
as  never  before  and  has  given  these  their  distinct  character.  It  is 
not  at  all  accidental  that  among  the  new  sciences  in  tlieology,  proba- 
bly the  most  important  is  that  of  Biblical  theology'-,  the  gradual  un- 
folding of  the  truths  of  revelation  and  the  different  phases  and 
forms  which  these  truths  assumed  in  various  periods  and  in  the  hands 
of  different  exponents.  The  historical  side  of  the  Scriptures  has 
been  studied  and  understood  by  no  generation  of  scholars  as  thor- 
oughly as  at  present.  The  earlier  Protestant  Church,  beginning 
"with  the  Reformation  era,  had  no  interest  in  this  problem,  as  the 
Scriptures  were  to  them  chiefly  a  codex  of  proof  passages;  but  the 
historical  spirit  of  modem  scholarship  compelled  the  church  to  in- 
vestigate this  phase  of  the  Bible  problem  too;  and  the  emphasis, 
greater  or  less,  that  is  laid  upon  the  human  and  historical  side  of 
the  Written  Word  really  causes  the  difference  between  the  various 
Biblical  schools  of  the  times.  For,  quite  naturally,  from  this  new 
point  of  view  taken  of  the  Scriptures,  some  teachings  concerning 
them,  which  were  based  on  the  traditional  method  of  regarding  these 
books  as  a  whole,  have  been  more  or  less  modified.  Among  these 
teachings  are  the  doctrines  of  inspiration,  of  inerrancy,  of  the  unity 
of  Scripture,  of  the  absolute  uniqueness  of  its  contents,  of  the  her- 
meneutical  principle  of  the  analogy  of  the  Scriptures,  and  others. 
Just  in  proportion  as  any  school  or  class  of  Bible  students  emphasize 
the  human  element  over  against  the  divine,  even  to  the  extent  of 
allowing  the  failings  and  weaknesses  of  the  human  to  appear  in  the 
contents  of  the  Scriptures,  to  this  degree,  too,  is  the  radicalism  of  a 
school  marked.  The  differences  and  distinctions  between  the  various 
schools  of  the  dav  do  not  consist  in  this,  that  the  one  or  the  other  ha^ 


158  CHRISTENDOM. 

a  greater  abundance  of  facts  at  its  command,  but  solely  in  the  meth- 
ods and  manners  in  which  these  facts  are  interpreted.  All  schools 
have  essentially  the  same  knowledge  of  the  contents  of  the  Scrip- 
tures, but  the  one  in  interpreting  these  contents  will  ascribe  to 
human  agency  and  understand  accordingly  what  another  will  ascribe 
to  the  divine.  Thus  Delitzsch  and  Wellhausen  both  were  thoroughly 
at  home  in  reference  to  the  actual  contents  and  literary  history  of  the 
Old  Testament ;  yet  the  former  saw  in  these  and  behind  these  facts 
the  special  workings  of  Jehovah  educating  Israel  for  the  fullness  of 
times  and  the  reception  of  the  Messiah,  while  Wellhausen  makes 
such  a  combination  and  interpretation  of  these  same  facts  that  the 
result  is  to  all  intents  and  purposes  a  naturalistic  reconstruction 
scheme  of  the  whole  Old  Testament  historical  development.  The 
difference  between  these  two  eminent  representatives  of  the  opposing 
clans  is  one  of  "standpoint,"  of  underlying  principles,  and  not  one 
of  learning,  critical  acumen  or  knowledge. 

This  great  work  of  studying  the  human  side  of  the  Scriptures 
rather  than  the  divine,  has  been  done  in  the  two  leading  departments 
of  Lower  and  Higher  Criticism,  both  of  which  have  fully  occupied 
the  attention  of  the  learned  world  during  the  entire  century.  His- 
torically and  logically  the  Lower  or  textual  criticism  precedes  the 
Higher  or  literary  and  historical  criticism.  The  first  of  these  dis- 
ciplines, so-called  merely  because  it  naturally  precedes  the  second, 
aims  at  a  restoration  of  the  text  of  the  books  of  the  Bible  to  a  form 
nearly  as  accurate  as  scientific  methods  can  bring  it  to  the  auto- 
graphs as  these  come  from  the  hands  and  the  pens  of  the  Prophets 
and  Apostles.  The  object  is  the  same  that  a  good  classical  scholar 
has  when  he  edits  a  Thucydides  or  a  Livy.  The  problem  itself  is 
entirely  the  same  whether  a  scholar  edits  a  Latin  or  Greek  classic,  or 
the  New  Testament  books,  and  substantially  the  principles  and  meth- 
ods in  both  instances  are  identical.  Only  in  the  case  particularly  of 
the  New  Testament  is  the  task  more  difficult,  partly  on  account  of 
the  importance  of  the  matter  itself,  where  sometimes  a  single  letter 
may  change  the  reading  of  a  whole  verse,  as  in  Luke  ii,  14,  and  part- 
ly on  account  of  the  "embarrassment  of  riches"  which  are  at  the  dis- 
posal of  a  New  Testament  editor,  who,  in  addition  to  a  mass  and 
multitude  of  other  excellent  aids,  has,  as  Gregory,  in  his  new  "Text- 
Kritik  der  Neuer  Testaments,"  page  3,  states,  no  fewer  than  three 
thousand  Greek  manuscripts  alone,  no  two  of  which  are  absolutely 
alike  throughout,  but  together,  as  Schaff,   in  his  "Companion   to 


CRITICAL    MOA^EMEiN^TS.  159 

the  Greek  Testament,"  page  177,  shows,  have  about  150,000  vari- 
ants. Lower  Criticism  has  for  a  century  and  more  been  trying  to 
select  from  this  immense  number  those  wliich,  according  to  acknowl- 
edged canons  of  literary  criticisms,  are  probably  the  original  read- 
ings of  these  books. 

It  is  a  singular  fact  that  the  application  of  this  science  to  the 
Bible  text  has  all  along  met  with  more  or  less  opposition,  although 
in  almost  every  particular  textual  criticism  has  rendered  conserva- 
tive scholarship  excellent  services.  A  scrupulous  examination  of  these 
tens  of  thousand  of  variants  has  demonstrated  the  fact  that  only 
about  four  hundred  of  them  materially  affect  the  sense;  that  not 
more  than  fifty  are  really  important  for  one  reason  or  the  other; 
and  that  even  of  these  fifty  not  one  affects  an  article  of  faith  or  a 
moral  precept  which  is  not  abundantly  sustained  by  other  and  un- 
doubted passages  and  by  the  whole  tenor  of  the  Scriptural  teach- 
ings. Ezra  Abbot,  the  greatest  textual  critic  of  America,  and  as  a 
Unitarian  certainly  not  hampered  by  orthodox  bias,  declares  that 
''no  Christian  doctrine  or  duty  rests  on  those  portions  of  the  text 
vv'hich  are  affected  by  differences  in  the  manuscripts;  still  less  is 
anything  essential  in  Christianity  touched  by  the  various  readings." 
Even  if  the  textual  criticisms  of  the  nineteenth  century  had  only 
rendered  this  negative  service  of  demonstrating  that  the  New  Tes- 
tament is  invulnerable  from  what  seemed  to  be  to  many  in  former 
generations  its  weakest  side,  it  is  entitled  to  a  high  rank  among  the 
useful  theological  discipline.  But  its  greatest  service  has  been  the 
positive  work  of  furnishing  what  is  practically  a  critical  texhis  re- 
ceptus  and  of  having  given  us  the  New  Testament  books  in  a  better 
and  more  trustworthy  shape  than  any  other  century  since  the  Apos- 
tolic period  possessed  them. 

The  names  that  stand  out  prominently  in  this  department  of  Bib- 
lical research  during  the  present  centuiy  are  especially  those  of 
Tischendorf,  Tregelles  and  Wescott-IIort,  although  there  are  others 
who  deserve  mention,  such  as  Scrivener,  von.  Gebhardt,  Gregory, 
Weiss,  Nestle  and  others.  Nor  has  the  work  been  entirely  done  dur- 
ing these  hundred  years.  To  a  certain  extent  textual  criticism,  at 
least  of  the  New  Testament,  is  an  inherited  problem  from  preceding 
ages,  which  in  men  like  Bengel  have  representative  scholars  in  this 
respect.  But  the  real  work,  and  especially  the  development  of  scien- 
tific methods  in  this  work,  has  been  done  in  the  nineteentb  century, 
and  in  the  combined  efforts  and  practically  uniform  and  almost  unan- 


160  CHRISTENDOM. 

imous  resultant  text  of  the  Tischendorf,  the  Tregelles  and  the  Wes- 
cott-Hort  editions,  we  have  the  ripest  and  richest  fruits  of  the  cen- 
tury in  reference  to  the  New  Testament  text.  It  is  true  that  not 
all  of  this  work  has  been  constructive  in  the  sense  that  it  has  led  in 
everything  to  a  retention  of  the  old  but  uncritical  text  of  former  gen- 
erations, but  it  has  been  constructive  in  this,  that  everywhere  it  has 
sought  to  restore  what  were  really  the  ipsissima  verba  of  the  Biblical 
writers.  Textual  criticism  has  indeed  eliminated  the  doxology  of  tlie 
Lord's  Prayer,  the  closing  verses  of  the  Gospel  of  St.  Mark,  the  peri- 
cope  of  the  woman  caught  in  adultery,  in  the  fourth  Gospel,  the 
Trinity  passage  in  John's  Epistle ;  but  also  these  have  been  dropped 
simply  because  they  are  not  in  harmony  with  the  contents  of  the  best 
manuscripts. 

In  the  prosecution  of  this  discipline,  it  is  remarkable  that  the 
practical  work  has  almost  entirely  crowded  out  the  theoretical.  It 
is  only  now,  in  the  new  book  of  Textual  Criticism,  by  the  famous 
American  representative  in  the  Leipzig  Theological  Faculty,  Profes- 
sor Caspar  Eene  Gregory,  that  we  are  receiving  a  perfectly  complete 
and  satisfactory  exposition  of  the  facts,  the  principles  and  the  prac- 
tices of  New  Testament  textual  criticism,  although  the  Plain  In- 
troduction of  Scrivener  and  the  smaller  work  of  Warfield  are  good 
as  far  as  they  go.  It  is  this  lack  of  perfect  clearness  of  the  underly- 
ing principles  that  has  to  a  greater  or  less  extent  given  the  results  of 
the  practical  work  in  this  department  the  appearance  of  some  uncer- 
tainty. In  the  English  school  headed  by  Dean  Burgon,  the  at- 
tempt was  made,  but  in  a  very  arbitrary  manner,  to  undermine  the 
principles  and  the  results  of  the  textual  criticism  of  the  times  in 
favor  of  the  old  traditional  readings  throughout,  especially  attack- 
ing the  authority  of  the  leading  older  manuscripts,  such  as  the 
Vaticanus,  and  the  methods  in  vogue  in  estimating  the  weight  and 
character  of  the  variant  readings  of  these  sources.  This  school  has 
virtually  ceased  to  exist,  but  a  new  tendency  hag  sprung  up,  advo- 
cated especially  by  the  classical  philologian,  Blass,  of  Halle,  who, 
on  the  basis  of  the  peculiar  readings  of  the  famous  Codex  Bezae, 
or  D,  in  Cambridge,  representing,  with  some  Latin  translations,  a 
certain  Oriental  type  of  readings,  maintains  that  Luke  himself  pub- 
lished two  editions  of  both  the  Acts  and  of  the  third  Gospel.  This 
view  concerning  the  prominence  to  be  assigned  to  this  codex  has  been 
expanded,  particularly  by  Nestle,  in  his  "Einfiihrung  in  das  Neue 
Testament,"  and  elsewhere,  to  the  proposal  that  the  entire  New  Tes- 


CEITICAL    MOVEMENTS.  161 

tiaineiit  text  should  be  revised  in  accordance  with  the  D  group  of 
manuscripts.  While  some  few,  such  as  Zockler,  of  Greifswald,  have 
in  part  at  least  expressed  their  agreement  with  the  two-edition  the- 
ory of  Blass,  the  demand  for  a  revision  of  the  entire  New  Testa- 
ment text  along  new  lines  has  found  very  little  favor.  Gregory 
(I.  c,  p.  47)  declares  it  to  be  his  judgment  that  "there  is  no  justifica- 
tion for  this  tendency."  The  fact  that  the  textual  criticism  of  the 
century  has  produced  tangible  and  satisfactory  results  in  the  shape 
of  a  critical  reliable  text — at  any  rate,  as  reliable  as  the  vast  abun- 
dance of  facts  and  data  at  the  disposal  of  modern  learning  can  pos- 
sibly make — this  is  manifestly  the  rich  fruits  of  investigation  in 
this  department,  which  is  not  the  least  rendered  doubtful  by  the 
independent  action  of  a  few  acknowledged  scholars  in  reference  to 
the  New  Testament  text,  notably  the  veteran  and  venerable  Bemhard 
Weiss,  of  Berlin,  who  in  an  eclectic  manner  has  recently,  after  con- 
tinuous labor  of  ten  years,  published  a  new  edition  of  the  entire  New 
Testament  canon. 

In  the  textual  criticism  of  the  Old  Testament  the  object  has  been 
the  same,  namely,  the  restoration  of  the  original  readings  as  far  as 
possible,  but  the  means  and  methods  of  attaining  this  end  have  been 
different  and  the  results  attained  have  not  been  as  substantial  and 
successful  as  was  the  case  in  the  New  Testament  field.  In  this  latter 
department  the  chief  critical  helps  were  the  manuscripts ;  in  the  Old 
Testament  textual  criticism  the  manuscripts  occupy  a  most  subordi- 
nate position,  and  the  first  position  in  the  critical  apparatus  of  the 
text  belongs  to  the  old  translations,  especially  the  Septuagint  or  old 
Greek  version.  The  reason  for  this  lies  in  the  singular  fact  that  we 
have  no  manuscripts  of  any  part  or  portion  of  the  Hebrew  text  of  the 
Old  Testament  earlier  than  the  ninth  or  tenth  Christian  centuries, 
so  that  between  the  close  of  the  Jewish  canon  and  the  oldest  form 
extant  of  the  written  text  a  period  of  thirteen  hundre_d  and  more 
years  intervenes,  while  in  the  New  Testament  department  the  time 
between  the  Apostles' autographs  and  the  earliest  manuscripts  is  three 
hundred  years  or  less,  and  the  hope  of  some  time  discovering  these 
autographs  themselves  has  not  altogether  been  discarded.  Accord- 
ingly, the  solution  of  the  textual  problem  in  the  case  of  the  Old  Tes- 
tament became  something  quite  different  from  that  of  the  New,  and 
respecting  the  former  the  old  versions,  at  least  the  Greek  of  the 
Seventy,  brought  the  text  up  to  a  few  hundred  years  from  the  time 
that  the  latest  books  of  the  Hebrew  canon  were  penned.    But  in  this 


162  CHRISTENDOM. 

unique  character  of  the  problem  lay  also  its  difficulty,  as  notliing 
could  be  done  for  the  Old  Testament  text  until  the  old  versions 
themselves  had  been  critically  examined  and  edited.  This  is  a 
peculiarly  difficult  task  in  the  case  of  the  Septuagint,  as  there  are 
three  recensions  of  tliis  version,  and  the  determination  of  which 
is  the  original  form  is  as  yet  unsolved,  although  it  has  engaged  the 
acumen  of  a  Lagarde.  On  account  of  the  immature  shape  and  condi- 
tion of  the  critical  helps  that  must  be  depended  upon  for  work  in  this 
department,  the  critical  work  on  the  Old  Testament  text  has  been 
done  rather  tentatively  and  experimentally,  and  in  many  cases  sub- 
jective reasonings  have  produced  radical  proposals  not  justified  by 
any  objective  data  in  the  sources.  In  most  circles  the  conviction 
prevails  that  the  Old  Testament  text,  as  it  has  been  handed  down  to 
us  traditionally  by  the  Massoretie  school,  is  substantially  correct  and 
requires  little  or  no  emendations ;  and  nothing  that  has  been  discov- 
ered in  any  literary  source  is  hostile  to  this  position.  The  changes 
that  have  been  proposed  in  the  Old  Testament  text  are  almost  en- 
tirely those  of  conjectural  criticism  and  have  the  common  faults  and 
failures  of  subjective  methods  of  research.  This  is  both  the  strength 
and  the  weakness  of  the  text  of  the  so-called  "Eainbow"'  or  Poly- 
chrome Bible,  edited  by  Professor  Haupt,  of  the  Johns  Hopkins 
University,  and  prepared  by  an  international  company  of  savants. 
In  so  far  as  it  amends  the  text  there  is  rarely  any  ground  except 
the  convictions  of  the  editor  as  to  what  the  text  ought  to  be.  Even 
more  radical  are  some  of  the  efforts  made  at  a  revised  text  of  par- 
ticular books  by  some  other  scholars,  especially  by  Cornill  in  his  edi- 
tion of  Ezekiel,  but  much  less  by  Workman  in  his  Jeremiah.  Well- 
hausen's  emendations  of  the  text  of  Samuel  is  a  work  of  rare  scholar- 
ship on  one  of  the  most  difficult  textual  problems  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment. But,  taking  all  the  researches  together  that  have  been  made  in 
reference  to  the  text  of  the  Old  Testament,  it  can  be  fairly  stated 
that  no  substantial  reasons  have  been  discovered  for  m.aking  any 
material  changes  in  this  text.  Negatively,  at  least,  the  Hebrew  Mas- 
soretie text  stands  firmer  now  than  ever.  This  is  substantially  the 
outcome  of  the  textual  researches  in  the  Old  Testament  department. 
But  the  nineteenth  has  been  eminently  the  century  of  Higher 
Criticism,  and  no  theological  movement  has.  aroused  an  interest 
equal  in  depth  and  width  to  that  called  forth  by  the  methods  and 
results  of  the  higher  critics.  It  has  become  the  international  prob- 
lem that  vexas  and  perplexes  Christianity.     In  marked  contrast  to 


CRITICAL    MOVEMENTS.  163 

Lower  or  textual  criticism,  the  claims  and  teachings  of  the  higher 
critics  have  penetrated  the  masses  and  the  congregations,  and  there 
have  met  with  favor  or  disfavor  that  is  pronounced  in  its  expression. 
Textual  criticism  has  all  along  remained  essentially  the  work  of  the 
theologian  and  the  specialist,  and  it  appealed  but  to  a  limited  degree 
to  the  concern  of  the  rank  and  the  file  of  the  ministry  or  the  laity, 
who  knew  practically  nothing  of  its  workings  except  as  some  evi- 
dences appeared  in  new  translations  and  especially  omissions  in  the 
Revised  Version.  On  the  other  hand  Higher  Criticism  affects  direct- 
ly the  vital  interests  of  Christianity  at  large.  Such  fundamentals  as 
the  inspiration  and  inerrancy  of  the  Scriptures,  the  unity  of  their 
teachings,  their  reliability  as  sources  of  history  and  even  of  religious 
matters,  are  all  more  or  less  influenced  by  the  spirit  and  the  results 
of  the  Higher  Criticism  of  the  day.  As  a  result,  this  science  is  a  sign 
that  is  spoken  against  and  in  many  cases  its  very  right  of  existence  is 
called  into  question. 

And  yet  all  this  opposition  is  really  directed  against  the  abuse, 
but  not  against  the  use,  of  the  Higher  Criticism.  This  discipline, 
rather,  is  an  important  and  indispensable  tool  in  the  workshop  of 
the  student  of  God's  word.  Every  thorough  student  of  the  Scrip- 
tures is  and  must  be  a  higher  critic.  It  is  very  unfortunate  that  this 
name  has  been  popularly  selected  as  a  term  of  reproach,  at  least  of 
distrust,  for  a  theological  discipline  that  belongs  to  the  oldest  sci- 
ences in  this  department.  In  reality  it  is  no  "higher"  than  textual 
criticism;  these  two  auxiliaries  of  Bible  study  are  co-ordinate,  and 
not  one  the  superior  or  inferior  of  the  other.  The  term  itself  is  rare- 
ly if  ever  applied  to  it  by  its  friends  or  by  those  who  cautiously  or 
carefully  make  use  of  this  discipline  as  the  best  interests  of  Biblical 
research  demand.  A  much  better  term  would  be  historical  or  his- 
torico-literary  criticism,  as  this  name  would  express  the  leading 
functions  of  the  science.  It  is  not  a  science  with  esoteri-e  principles 
and  processes  for  the  discovery  of  truth  not  accessible  to  the  ordi- 
nary Bible  reader,  but  merely  the  application  to  the  Scriptures  of  the 
critical  canons  that  prevail  in  the  interpretation  of  other  literar}'^ 
works  of  antiquity  or  even  of  modem  times.  If,  e.  g.^  the  student  of 
Herodotus  examines  the  writings  of  this  historian  in  the  light  of 
what  is  known  of  their  author,  his  times  and  surroundings,  his  lit- 
erary methods,  and  the  records  of  the  nations  he  describes,  such  a 
process  is  nothing  but  Higher  Criticism.  If,  again,  the  student  of 
Cicero's  letters  studies  the  historical  surroundings  of  these  writings, 


164  CHRISTENDOM. 

as  also  their  style,  contents,  etc.,  for  the  purpose  of  understanding 
all  the  better  their  real  lessons,  this  again  is  nothing  but  Higher 
Criticism.  The  scholar  who,  like  the  late  Professor  Green  or  like 
Professors  Hengstenberg  and  Keil,  defends  the  Mosaic  authorship 
of  the  Pentateuch  on  internal  grounds  is  just  as  much  a  higher  crit- 
ic as  are  those  who  from  data  drawn  from  such  an  analysis  of  these 
books  maintain  that  they  are  productions  of  the  post-Mosaic  period. 
That  which  made  the  work  done  in  this  department  so  obnoxious  to 
the  great  bulk  of  conservative  Christians  is  the  fact  that  this  science 
has  been  handled  not  according  to  objective  facts  or  principles,  but 
that  certain  philosophical  ideas  and  ideals  have  been  injected  into  its 
application.  In  this  way  the  New  Testament  school  of  Baur,  of 
Tiibingen,  which  made  the  Christianity  of  the  later  books  of  the 
New  Testament  and  of  the  Apostolic  period  the  result  of  a  compro- 
mise between  two  antagonistic  principles  or  schools,  the  Jewish  of 
Peter  and  the  Gentile  of  Paul,  that  prevailed  in  the  earliest  church, 
was  really  nothing  but  the  Hegelian  philosophy  of  history  applied 
to  the  New  Testament  records,  the  facts  and  contents  of  which  were 
forced  into  the  Procrustean  bed  of  this  philosophical  scheme.  In 
the  same  way  the  Wellhausen-Kuenen  reconstruction  of  the  Old  Tes- 
tament religious  development,  which  is  now  the  battle  ground  of  the 
contending  hosts  in  Biblical  science,  is  practically  little  more  than 
the  application  of  Darwinian  natural  selection  in  the  interpretation 
of  what  the  Old  Testament  books  teach.  It  is  this  injection  of  philo- 
sophical subjectivism  into  the  higher  critical  methods  and  manners 
that  has  aroused  the  antagonism  which  modem  Higher  Criticism, 
in  its  more  or  most  radical  phases,  amply  deserves.  But  the  course 
of  investigation  has  demonstrated  that  this  Higher  Criticism,  when 
prosecuted  along  legitimate  lines  and  in  a  sober  and  reasonable  spirit, 
can  be  productive  only  of  good.  The  history  of  the  Baur  or  Tiibingen 
movement  shows  this  beyond  a  doubt.  A  generation  ago  the  New 
Testament  was  the  field  in  which  the  higher  critics  operated,  and 
where  Christianity  was  attacked  in  its  very  essentials  and  fundamen- 
tals. Baur  accepted  only  four  of  the  Pauline  Epistles  as  genuine, 
namely,  Romans,  the  two  Corinthians  and  Galatians ;  all  others  were 
in  hjs  eyes  spurious  and  forgeries,  and  on  the  basis  of  this  readjust- 
ment of  the  literary  sources  of  early  Christianity  he  erected  his 
theological  scheme  that  virtually  brought  Christ's  teachings  and 
original  Christianity  in  pronounced  conflict  with  that  of  the  New 
Testament  literature  and  of  the  Christian  Church.     The  most  ex- 


CRITICAL    MOVEMENTS.  165 

treme  radicalism  of  tliis  school  found  its  expression  in  the  famous 
or  rather  infamous  book  of  Strauss,  "The  Life  of  Christ,"  which 
practically  reduced  the  records  concerning  the  life  and  the  teachings 
of  Jesus  to  a  myth.  It  was  this  school  of  higher  critics  that  forced 
Christian  scholars  to  investigate  the  sources  of  their  creed  and  faith 
as  never  before.  The  New  Testament  itself,  as  the  entire  body  of 
Patristic  and  early  Christian  literature,  had  to  be  examined  anew 
with  a  detail  investigation  and  research  that  had  never  obtained  in 
theological  science.  And  the  result  has  bec^n  more  than  beneficial  to 
the  church  and  its  faith.  The  credibility  and  authenticity  of  the 
New  Testament  books  now  stand  firmer  than  ever  before;  the  re- 
newed examination  of  this  field  led  to  a  gradual  reaction  against  the 
radical  proposals  of  the  Tiibingen  school  and,  above  all,  to  a  better 
knowledge  of  the  real  character  of  New  Testament  books  and  the 
grounds  for  their  claim  to  be  Apostolic  and  authoritative  writings. 
What  this  counter  movement  and  reinvestigation  has  led  to  can  be 
best  seen  in  three  magnificent  works  that  have  appeared  within  the 
last  few  years,  namely,  the  "Chronology  of  Early  Christian  Litera- 
ture," by  the  brilliant  Harnack,  of  Berlin;  the  "Introduction  to  the 
New  Testament,"  by  the  recently  deceased  Professor  Godet,  and  the 
massive  work  of  Professor  Zahn,  of  Erlangen,  with  the  same  title. 
The  latter  two  defend  the  New  Testament  books  throughout  and 
substantially  as  the  church  has  believed  in  them  for  centuries,  and 
particularly  does  the  splendid  work  of  Zahn  deserve  mention  in  this 
regard.  Such  a  mastery  of  the  original  sources  and  such  an  abund- 
ance of  data  and  details  from  the  earliest  sources,  and  all  confirma- 
tory of  the  traditional  views  of  the  church  in  general,  have  never 
been  equaled  in  theological  lore,  and  stamp  this  grand  work  as  one 
of  the  most  learned  that  the  world  has  ever  produced.  Harnack  is 
generally  regarded  as  an  exponent  of  critical  theolog}%  and  this  esti- 
mate is  correct.  Yet  he  accepts  the  entire  New  Testament  collection 
of  books  as  authentic  with  the  sole  exception  of  Second  Peter,  al- 
though he  does  not  regard  the  fourth  Gospel  in  its  present  shape  as 
the  work  of  John,  nor  the  Pastoral  Epistles  in  the  form  in  which 
we  now  possess  them  as  penned  by  the  Apostle  Paul.  Yet  what  a 
wonderful  change  there  has  been  in  this  respect  within  recent  years ! 
The  tendency  has  been  steadily  and  persistently  in  the  direction 
of  the  older  views,  and  the  radical  phases  of  New  Testament  Higher 
Criticism  have  been  eradicated  by  the  more  moderate  claim  of  schol- 
ars in  this  department.     Not,  indeed,  in  the  sense  that  nothing  of 


166  CHRISTENDOM. 

Baur's  teachings  has  been  left.  In  all  radical  movements  that  show 
the  least  vitality  and  life  there  is  an  element  of  truth,  the  exaggera- 
tion and  misinterpretation  of  which  constitute  the  stock  in  trade. 
This  element  of  truth  always  remains  as  a  residuum  when  the  radi- 
calism has  been  thoroughly  filtered,  and  becomes  a  fixed  fact  in  theo- 
logical science.  The  Tiibingen  school  emphasized  as  had  never  be- 
fore been  done  the  different  tendencies  that  prevailed  in  the  early 
Christian  Church,  and  the  fact  that  there  were  in  existence  a  Pauline 
theology,  a  Petrine  theology  and  a  Joannine  theology  in  primitive 
Christianity  is  now  admitted  on  all  hands,  but  not  in  the  sense  of  the 
Tiibingen  school,  as  antagonistic  tendencies,  but  as  expressions  of 
the  one  common  faith,  but  from  different  points  of  view.  There 
can  be  scarcely  a  doubt  that  when  once  the  Old  Testament  discus- 
sions shall  have  advanced  to  the  stage  which  the  New  has  attained, 
that  then,  too,  the  element  of  truth  in  the  Wellhausen  theory  will 
be  acknowledged  and  become  a  permanent  possession  of  Christian 
theology.  That  this  controversy  and  debate  has  already  been  pro- 
ductive of  much  good  in  certain  directions  is  an  undeniable  fact. 
The  historical  side  of  the  Scriptures;  the  fact  that  they  are  not  only 
a  revelation,  but  also  the  history  of  a  revelation ;  the  gradual  devel- 
opment of  this  revelation  through  various  historical  phases  and 
stages ;  the  connection  of  the  Old  Testament  books  with  the  thought 
and  the  life  of  the  times  that  produced  them,  and  especially  the  un- 
derstanding of  the  externals  of  the  Scriptures,  such  as  history,  chron- 
ology, archaeology,  etc.,  in  the  light  of  the  recovered  treasures  from 
the  ruins  of  the  former  civilizations  of  the  Nile  and  the  Tigris-Eu- 
phrates valleys — all  these  and  many  more  things  are  better  under- 
stood concerning  the  Old  Testament  now  than  ever  before.  A  proper 
estimate,  however,  of  this  additional  knowledge  can  only  be  made 
when  it  is  remembered  that  all  the  new  sources  that  the  Higher 
Criticism  of  the  times  has  made  available  cannot  and  do  not  touch 
what  must  be  for  the  church  the  main  and  the  chief  things  in  the 
Scriptures,  namely,  the  revelation  of  the  mysteries  of  God,  the  Trin- 
ity, the  Personal  Work  of  Christ,  the  Plan  of  Salvation,  Atonement, 
Justification,  Sanctification,  etc. — all  these  have  gained  nothing 
through  the  external  sources  to  which  Higher  Criticism  appeals,  and 
only  to  a  limited  extent  by  the  internal  criticism  and  investigations 
as  conducted  by  this  school. 

In  both  the  New  and  the  Old  Testament  Higher  Criticism,  much 
stress  has  been  laid  on  the  literary  analyses  of  the  various  books,  and. 


CRITICAL    MOVEMENTS.  167 

indeed,  tMs  has  been  made  the  basis  for  the  different  theories  that 
have  been  advanced.  The  father  of  this  tendency  was  the  French 
Roman  Catholic  physician,  Astruc,  who  in  his  work  on  the  "Sources 
Which  Moses  Seems  to  Have  Employed  in  the  Composition  of  the 
Pentateuch"  sounded  the  keynote  of  the  whole  modern  criticism. 
This  principle  of  an  analysis  of  a  book  into  parts  of  which  it  is 
claimed  to  have  been  composed  has  been  applied  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment much  more  than  in  the  ISTew.  In  the  latter,  serious  attempts 
in  this  direction  have  been  made  only  in  the  case  of  the  Acts  and 
the  Apocalypse,  although  a  similar  process  is  advocated  for  Second 
Corinthians  and  a  few  other  books.  In  the  New  Testament  depart- 
ment the  chief  literary  question  is  the  Synoptic  Problem,  which  seeks 
to  determine  the  literary  dependence  or  independence  of  the  three 
Synoptic  Gospels.  The  outcome  has  been  this,  that  the  largest  consen- 
sus favors  the  older  form  of  Mark — Ur-Markus — and  the  "Sayings" 
of  Matthew,  a  Hebrew  collection  of  quotations  from  Christ's  teach- 
ings, as  the  basis  of  the  three  Gospels  as  we  have  them  now  in  their 
canonical  form.  In  the  Old  Testament  the  analytical  method  has 
been  applied  to  almost  every  book,  and  in  some  cases,  as  in  the  Pen- 
tateuch, the  Book  of  Isaiah,  the  Psalms,  has  led  to  entirely  new  ad- 
justment of  the  contents  of  these  books  and  their  place  in  Hebrew 
literature  and  their  teachings  concerning  the  development  of  the 
Old  Testament  religion.  In  the  Wellhausen  scheme  the  Levitical 
system  is  the  last  element  in  the  literature  of  the  Old  Testament, 
this  scheme  thus  literally  turning  topsy-turvy  the  common  and  tra- 
ditional view  of  the  church  as  founded  on  the  position  taken  by  the 
Jews  of  the  New  Testament  period  and  by  the  Christ  and  His  Apos- 
tles. 

The  nineteenth  century  has  thus  brought  to  a  certain  and  satisfac- 
tory close  the  work  of  investigating  the  New  Testament,  although 
naturally  much  yet  remains  to  be  done  in  details  and  particulars. 
It  has  given  us  an  excellent  critical  text  of  the  New  Testament  on 
the  basis  of  the  best  sources  extant;  and  it  has  given  us  the  best 
defence  of  the  New  Testament  books  that  the  world  has  ever  seen. 
In  the  Old  Testament  such  progress  has  not  yet  been  made,  neither 
in  Lower  nor  in  Higher  Criticism.  The  latter  is  still  the  great  de- 
batable land  between  the  conservative  and  the  advanced  scholar,  and 
the  twentieth  century  will  have  much  work  yet  to  do  in  this  field, 
notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the  advocates  of  the  more  or  less  radi- 
cal type  of  Old  Testament  research  are  accustomed  to  claim  that 


168  CHRISTENDOM. 

their  teachings  are  the  "sure"  result  of  accurate  scientific  methods. 
They  are  constantly  being  attacked  by  those  who  favor  older  views, 
and  it  can  fairly  be  stated  that  a  reaction  against  them  has  set  in. 
As  3'et  this  reaction  is — at  least  in  Germany,  whic  J  has  been  the 
headquarters  of  all  innovations  in  this  department  for  decades — 
confined  to  the  rank  and  file  of  the  church,  and  has  not  yet  reached 
the  universities.  At  these  centres  of  thought  there  are  indeed  many 
opponents  of  radicalism  and  friends  of  evangelical  and  positive  Bib- 
lical science;  but  none  of  these  is  willing  to  defend  the  old  posi- 
tions, such  as  the  verbal  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures,  the  Mosaic 
authorship  of  the  Pentateuch,  the  composition  of  Isaiah  xl-lxvi,  by 
the  prophet  of  that  name,  etc.  But  even  at  the  universities  the 
sober  second  thought  is  beginning  to  exhibit  itself  in  connection 
with  detail  researches,  and  the  prospects  are  that  it  will  prove  con- 
tagious and  spread,  as  was  the  case  among  the  New  Testament  men. 
Outside  of  the  purely  Biblical  department,  no  critical  movement 
of  the  nineteenth  century  equals  in  importance  that  which  is  con- 
nected with  the  name  of  Albrecht  Kitsehl,  of  the  University  of  Got- 
tingeu,  Germany.  This  is  the  new  theology  in  the  systematic  field 
and  has  become  practically  an  international  school.  Eitschl  is  the 
only  theologian  in  Germany  who,  since  the  days  of  Schleierraacher, 
has  managed  to  found  a  distinct  "school,"  his  only  possible  rival  in 
this  regard  being  Von  Hofmann,  of  Erlangen.  At  bottom  there  is 
a  deep-seated  connection  between  the  tendencies  of  modern  theologi- 
cal thought  as  seen  in  the  Biblical  sciences  and  the  new  liberal  the- 
ology of  Eitschl.  The  greatest  difference  is  this,  that  the  former  is 
based  largely  on  the  philosophy  of  the  Darwinian  school,  while  the 
latter  is  founded  on  the  system  of  Kant.  The  great  Kcinigsberg 
philosopher  wrote  three  leading  works,  namely,  his  "Critique  of 
Pure  Eeason,"  his  "Critique  of  Practical  Eeason"  and  his  "Eeligion. 
Within  the  Limits  of  Pure  Reason."  These  three  books  complete 
and  round  off  his  whole  system.  The  aim  of  the  first  work  is  to 
prove  that  all  knowledge  through  perception  (Erkenntniss)  is  con- 
fined to  the  range  of  our  experience ;  and  that  consequently  the  doc- 
trines of  our  religion,  since  these  belong  to  a  supernatural  domain, 
cannot  thus  form  the  objects  of  knowledge  proper.  At  tlie  same 
time,  Kant  maintains  that  we  are  thus  compelled  to  look  to  a  sub- 
jective source  for  the  fundamental  conceptions  of  religion.  To  find 
these  is  the  purpose  of  the  second  book,  where  it  is  maintained  that 
in  our  natural  consciousness  we  have  immediate  and  imperative  con- 


CRITICAL    MOVEMENTS.  169 

ceptions  of  a  duty  to  observe  a  moral  law,  to  accept  God,  freedom 
and  immortality,  not  as  objects  of  knowledge,  but  as  moral  postu- 
lates, i.  c,  as  the  necessary  preconditions  of  the  moral  law.  The  ac- 
tual results  of  this  theoretical  standpoint  Kant  gives  in  his  third 
book. 

These  fundamental  positions  of  Kant,  who  holds  in  history  the 
position  of  a  father  of  rationalism,  especially  of  that  type  of  ethical 
rationalism  which  seeks,  in  a  moral  system  demanded  by  conscious- 
ness, a  substitute  for  the  doctrines  and  dogmas  of  the  Scriptures 
which  the  adherents  of  this  school  decline  to  accept — these  positions 
have  been  adopted  and  applied  to  systematic  theology  by  Eitschl, 
who  has  thus  developed  the  leading  ethico-systematic  school  of  the 
century.  His  fundamental  positions  are  these:  (1)  Metaphysics, 
being  the  science  of  things  in  themselves,  are  to  be  excluded  from 
theology  proper.  We  can  know  an  agent  only  by  its  actions,  and 
theology  has  to  do  only  with  Werturtheile,  i.  e..  Judgments  as  to 
what  a  fact  is  worth  to  us  practically,  not  with  Seinsurtheile,  i.  e., 
judgments  of  what  the  thing  actually  is.  We  can  know  what  the 
benefits  of  the  life  and  work  of  Christ  are,  but  the  real  knowledge  as 
to  His  superhuman  being  and  character  we  cannot  know.  In  this 
way  the  common  definitions  of  theological  science  become  something 
entirely  new  in  the  Ritschl  system,  the  Divinity  of  Christ,  e.  g.,  being 
only  an  expression  for  this  idea,  that  He  completely  revealed  God  to 
the  world  according  to  the  ethical  purposes  of  God,  and  that  He 
exercises  ethical  world  supremacy.  It  is  on  this  ground  that  the 
common  charge  is  made  against  this  system  that  it  "empties"  the 
central  doctrines  of  Christianity  of  their  positive  and  objective  con- 
tents and  puts  in  its  place  a  moral  system  after  the  manner  of  the 
Kantian  "Categorical  Imperative"  without  the  necessary  Biblical 
and  dogmatical  substructure.  But  it  is  just  this  feature  that  makes 
it  so  attractive  to  younger  minds  who  would  like  to  accept  the  nega- 
tive teachings  of  modern  criticism  and  not  discard  the  positive  ele- 
ments of  the  Christian  system.  This  system  seemingly  solves  the 
anomaly  of  much  of  modern  advanced  theology,  which,  as  the  Ger- 
man philosopher  Jacobs  says,  demands  that  its  adherents  "must  be 
Christians  in  their  hearts,  but  unbelievers  in  their  heads."  The 
Eitschl  system  has  captured  the  younger  element  in  the  theological 
world,  not  only  in  Germany,  but  also  in  French  Switzerland  and 
France  proper  (where  it  appears  in  the  form  of  la  theologie  de  la  con- 
science, or  the  theology  of  consciousness),  and  to  a  certain  extent  in 


170  CHRISTENDOM. 

England,  America  and  the  Scandinavian  countries.  Its  second  the- 
sis is  equally  attractive,  viz.,  (2)  Religion  and  religious  knowledge 
are  based  exclusively  on  ethical  principles,  which  decides  the  funda- 
mentally ethical  character  of  this  new  theology. 

With  the  sole  exception  of  the  Ritschl  school,  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury has  produced  no  distinctly  ethical  movement  of  a  theoretical 
character  that  can  claim  to  have  made  a  decided  impression  on  the 
thought  of  the  age  as  such.  Ethical  problems  have  indeed  engaged 
the  attention  of  the  theological  and  religious  world,  but  usually  in 
the  shape  of  practical  work.  In  this  respect  the  nineteenth  has  been 
a  century  of  progress  in  every  direction,  but  in  all  such  cases  the 
actual  work  precedes  the  theoretical  discussion  of  its  principles. 
Thus,  e.  g.,  this  has  certainly  been  the  greatest  missionary  century 
since  the  days  of  the  Apostles  and  the  mission  literature  has  been 
simply  enormous,  but  it  has  only  been  in  the  last  year  or  two  that 
we  have  received  the  first  systematic  presentation  of  the  principles 
and  practices  of  missions  as  a  science,  this  three-volume  work  being 
from  the  pen  of  the  greatest  living  authority  in  this  line,  Professor 
G.  Warneck,  of  the  University  of  Halle.  In  a  similar  manner  the 
actual  problems  of  Christian  Sociology  are  receiving  marked  atten- 
tion everywhere,  in  America,  in  Germany,  in  England,  and  that  by  all 
the  leading  churches,  the  Roman  Catholic  included;  but  a  system 
of  Christian  Sociology  has  not  yet  been  forthcoming  and  the  move- 
ment has  not  yet  attained  the  dignity  of  an  independent  phase  of 
international  modern  theological  thought.  Other  movements,  such 
as  that  of  Tolstoi  in  Russia  and  Nietsche  in  Germany,  which  aini 
at  a  change  in  the  estimate  of  fundamental  Christian  ethical  values, 
by  that  very  fact  are  excluded  from  the  category  of  Christian  ethical 
agitations.  Indeed,  the  work  in  this  department  has  been  nearly  all 
of  a  practical  kind,  and  in  this  respect  the  nineteenth  century  has  a 
good  record.  Its  chief  work  has  been  in  the  line  of  Biblical  science, 
in  which  it  has  accomplished  excellent  results,  but  still  leaves  some 
leading  problems,  especially  of  Old  Testament  criticism  and  Biblical 
theology,  for  the  twentieth  to  investigate. 


THE  RELIGIOUS  PRESS. 


Wm.  C.  Gray,  Ph.D.,  LL.D., 

CHtCAGO. 

[The  religious  paper,  however  its  methods  may  be  modified,  is  a  permanent 
form  of  journalism.  The  secular  paper  may  pay  increased  attention  to  news 
of  the  churches ;  but,  even  though  it  should  ultimately  publish  a  weekly  re- 
ligious supplement — some  day  a  newspaper  proprietor  will  open  his  eyes  and 
discover  that  there  are  as  many  people  interested  in  religion  as  in  literature — 
it  can  never  make  the  definitely  and  aggressively  religious  organ  unnecessary. 
For  it  is  not  a  mere  matter  of  news,  but  a  question  of  tone  and  of  standpoint. 
As  Dr.  Dunning  puts  it :  "The  great  interests  of  the  church,  ethical,  socio- 
logical, educational  and  missionary,  have  become  essential  elements  of  nation- 
al life."  These  cannot  be  understood  except  by  men  who  have  given  them 
careful  study.  Then  it  is  impossible  for  any  one  paper  to  present  the  creedal 
distinctions  which  prevail.  Still  less  could  it  deal  adequately  with  theological 
problems,  or  supply  devotional  reading  that  would  be  acceptable  in  all  quar- 
ters. 

There  is  no  reason,  however,  why  there  should  not  be  a  further  grouping  o£ 
literary  effort  among  churches  that  are  nearly  allied.  For  example,  the 
churches  in  England  federated  in  the  Free  Church  Council  have  enough  in 
common  to  make  such  a  union  possible.  The  vast  distances  in  this  country 
will  always  prevent  any  Eastern  weekly  paper  from  cii-culating  all  over  the 
United  States  to  the  same  degree  that  a  London  paper  circulates  all  over 
the  United  Kingdom.  But  if  at  Chicago,  for  example,  there  were  published 
one  strong,  well-endorsed  and  well-equipped  religious  weekly,  representing 
these  various  churches  in  the  Middle  West  in  the  same  way  that  "The  Chris- 
tian World"  represents  the  Nonconformists  of  England,  would  it  not  exert 
a  far  stronger  force  in  the  promotion  of  righteousness  than  is  at  present 
exercised  by  all  the  religious  papers  of  that  city  put  together?  The  facility 
with  which  a  minister  in  America  passes  from  one  denomination  to  another 
suggests  the  possibility  of  a  larger  union  in  literary  enterprise  than  at  present 
exists.  Tliis  further  appears  possible  in  view  of  the  growing  tendency  for 
denominational  papers  to  be  less  destructive  than  formerly.  As  Henry  Ward 
Beecher  put  it :  to  regard  such  differences  as  lines  instead  of  walls. 

Yet  the  denominational  periodical,  whatever  may  be  its  future,  has  made  in 
the  past  a  valuable  contribution  to  popular  education  ;  not  only  giving  an 
intellectual  and  a  religious  stimulus  to  its  readers,  but  also  in  affording  a 
literary  training  to  its  contributors. — H.  W.  Horwill  ;  "The  Forum,"  July, 
1901.— Ed.] 

171 


172  CHKISTENDOM. 

The  first  printed  sheet  taken  off  movable  types  was  a  text  of 
Scripture,  and  the  first  printed  book  was  the  Bible.  Therefore  the 
press  belongs  to  religion  by  right  of  discovery  and  occupation. 

The  beginnings  of  all  literatures  are  wholly  religious.  The  first 
poems  were  inspired  by  religion.  So,  also,  the  first  traces  of  paint- 
ing, the  first  outlines  of  sculpture,  first  masses  of  architecture,  were 
inspired  by  religious  longings.  And  so  I  might  proceed  with  the 
whole  round  of  the  activities  and  achievements  of  the  mind  of  man. 
So,  also,  I  might  show  that  the  highest  reaches  in  all  the  conquests 
of  knowledge  over  the  earth,  over  the  seas  and  amid  the  starry  heav- 
ens, were  inspired  and  nerved  by  religion.  I  am  justified  in  be- 
lieving a  truth  which  can  be  arrived  at  by  other  paths  of  thought, 
that  the  crowning  triumph  of  the  journalistic  art  is  to  be  the  re- 
ligious newspaper. 

The  periodical  press  is  a  development  out  of  the  pamphlet.  The 
pamphlet  was  originally  a  weapon  of  polemics.  But  as  polemics  and 
politics  were  intimately  blended,  so  the  pamphlet  was  an  admixture 
of  politics  and  religion.  John  Milton  was  the  king  of  pamphleteers. 
His  theme  was  God  first,  and  then  human  rights.  The  first  periodi- 
cal newspaper,  whatever  may  have  been  its  character,  was  called  the 
"Acta  Diurna,"  and  was  published  in  manuscript  in  Rome,  1438-40. 
The  first  secular  newspaper  was  either  the  "Frankfort  Journal"  or 
the  "Neuremburg  Gazette."  They  first  appeared  almost  simultane- 
ously, in  the  year  1457.  The  name  "Neuremburg"  suggests  the  fact 
that  the  topics  which  occupied  the  "Gazette"  were  not  only  religious, 
but  religion  in  helmet  and  cuirass.  The  chief  secular  interest  in 
Neuremburg  was  soon  after  the  battle  of  the  Eeformation.  But  the 
newspapers,  as  time  progressed,  became  more  and  more  secular,  and 
religious  topics  were  left  to  the  pulpit. 

The  first  conception  of  a  distinctly  religious  newspaper  occurred 
to  the  mind  of  a  secular  journalist,  Mr.  Nathaniel  Willis,  of  Bos- 
ton, editor  and  publisher  of  the  "Argus."  Willis  happened  to  hear 
a  sermon  preached  by  Rev.  Edward  Payson,  in  the  year  1808,  which 
convicted  him  of  sin,  and  brought  him  to  Christ.  In  those  times 
the  battle  between  the  Federalists  and  Republicans  was  very  trucu- 
lent and  bitter.  Willis  was  a  Republican,  and  when  it  came  to  poli- 
tical lying  and  vituperation  he  took  a  back  seat  for  no  man.  But 
on  confessing  Christ,  he  promptly  reformed,  refused  to  lie  or  to  en- 
gage in  blackguardism,  and  made  the  "Argus"  an  honest  and  a  gen- 
tlemanly paper.     The  result  was  general  dissatisfaction  in  tlie  ranks 


THE    RELIGIOUS    PRESS.  173 

of  Ms  party.  They  told  him  that  he  was  milk  and  water,  that  he 
was  either  priest-ridden  or  turning  Federalist,  and  that  if  he  did  not 
make  a  more  spirited  paper  they  would  start  another. 

He  did  not  know  what  so  many  yet  fail  to  perceive,  that  religion 
and  stupidity  are  not  conditions  precedent  of  each  other;  so  he  sold 
out  to  them;  and  rightly  thinking  that  it  would  require  money  to 
make  a  success  of  his  new  enterprise,  went  into  the  grocery  business 
for  a  time.  But  here  his  conscience  again  defeated  him.  The  prin- 
cipal profit  of  the  trade  then  was  in  the  staple  of  New  England  rum, 
and  Willis  would  not  sell  rum.  At  that  time  if  there  was  a  minis- 
ter in  that  region  who  did  not  buy  and  drink  rum,  he  kept  his 
blue  light  under  a  bushel.  I  suppose  that  Willis  must  have  been 
regarded  as  a  religious  crank  and  fanatic.  He  had  an  idea  that 
lying  would  form  no  part  of  the  spirit  of  the  religious  newspaper. 
But  he  was  doomed  to  disappointment,  as  many  a  man  has  since 
been.  He  was  maligned  to  the  day  of  his  death,  and  the  attempt 
made  to  wrest  his  honors  from  him. 

Willis  did  not  realize  his  idea  till  eight  years  after  he  had  laid 
the  plan  before  his  spiritual  adviser.  Dr.  Payson.  His  first  issue 
was  dated  January  3,  1816.  The  paper  lived  till  the  year  1871. 
when  it  was  merged  in  the  "Boston  Congregationalist,"  but  the  name 
of  the  "Recorder"  is  still  kept  at  the  mast-head.  Willis  died  in  1870. 

While  Willis  was  trying  to  make  money  enough  to  float  his  pro- 
posed "Recorder,"  strange  to  say  his  seed  thought  had  been  blown 
across  the  woody  wilderness,  hundreds  of  miles,  and  fallen  in  the  rich 
alluvium  of  the  Scioto.  Ohio  was  then  mostly  a  dense  forest.  The 
deer,  the  wolf,  the  bear,  the  panther  and  the  wild  turkey  everywhere 
abounded.  It  was  the  paradise  of  the  hunter  and  the  fisherman. 
No  wonder  that  the  first  religious  paper,  amid  surroundings  so  con- 
genial, was  a  success.  The  irons  for  a  wooden  Ramage  press  had 
been  packed  across  the  mountains  for  the  Territorial  Government, 
then  located  at  Chillicothe,  and  on  this  old  press — now,  I  believe, 
in  the  "Gazette"  office  in  Cincinnati — Rev.  John  Andrews  printed 
his  "Christian  Recorder."  This  was  in  1814,  or  nearly  two  years 
before  Willis  was  able  to  get  out  his  "Christian  Recorder."  An- 
drews not  only  took  Willis's  idea,  but  the  name,  also.  The  "Record- 
er" was  moved  to  Pittsburgh,  and  became  the  "Presbyterian  Ban- 
ner." The  two  "Recorders"  were  quickly  followed  by  a  brood  of 
religious  papers,  and  many  hundreds  have  since  been  born  to  die — to 
die  in  sweet,  confiding  infancy : 


174  CHRISTENDOM. 

Happy  infants,  early  blest, 
Rest  in  peaceful  slumber,  rest : 
Early  rescued  from  the  cares 
Which  increase  with  growing  years. 

The  religious  newspaper  is  the  form  in  which  journalism  is  to 
achieve  its  highest  and  finest  development.  It  is  highly  interesting 
to  notice  the  changes  which  have  already  taken  place  in  its  charac- 
ter. The  early  forms  were  wholly  sermonie.  They  were  hortatory, 
homiletic,  polemic — simply  the  pulpit  of  the  times  in  print.  The 
names  indicited  their  character.  They  were  the  Eecorders,  Observ- 
ers, Expositors,  Evangelists,  Presbyters,  Advocates — the  whole  line 
of  names  expressive  of  ponderosity  was  exhausted.  Then  came  the 
Presbyterian,  Baptists,  Methodists,  and  other  denominational  news- 
paper names.  In  every  instance  they  were  edited  by  ministers,  and 
in  no  instance  evinced  journalistic  skill.  They  were  heavy  and  sol- 
emn. Anything  like  levity  was  regarded  as  inappropriate  as  it 
would  be  in  the  pulpit.  There  was  plenty  of  good  thought  in  them, 
but  no  vivacity.  The  two  departments  of  heavy  leaders  and  long 
obituaries  fitted  them  for  the  solemn  and  penitential  hours  of  the 
Sabbath. 

The  general  character  of  the  religious  press  will  be  more  and  more 
of  the  popular  kind.  Competition  has  become  so  intense,  and  popu- 
lar taste  has  become  so  appreciative  and  refined,  that  higher  jour- 
nalistic skill  will  constantly  be  in  demand. 

The  day  for  doing  editorial  work  as  a  side  issue  has  passed  forever. 
The  religious  press  hereafter  will  seek  for  the  best  brains,  the  finest 
training,  and  the  best  natural  aptitude,  and  with  these  a  capacity  for 
endurance  and  intense  application.  Tennyson  says  that  he  has 
applied  himself  closely  for  two  hours  to  write  one  line.  George 
Eliot  wrote  but  sixty  lines  per  day.  The  successful  religious  jour- 
nalist of  the  future  will  put  in  work  something  like  that.  The  ris- 
ing culture  will  demand  it,  and  it  will  get  what  it  demands.  The 
higher-class  English  journals  are  working  for  this  degree  of  ex- 
cellence. The  "London  Times"  allows  members  of  its  editorial 
staff  only  three  hours  of  working  time  per  day.  They  are  required 
to  come  fresh  from  sleep,  and  with  only  a  glass  of  tea  or  claret,  to 
their  desks,  and  at  the  end  of  throe  hours  they  must  hand  over  their 
work  and  leave  the  office.  The  result  is  those  editorials,  impressive 
as  a  thundercloud,  but  instinct  with  lightning,  which  gave  the  great 
paper  its  name.     Now,  contrast  with  these  the  editorials  of  the 


THE    RELIGIOUS    PRESS.  175 

"London  Spectator."  They  are  almost  equal  to  the  essays  of  Addi- 
son in  the  old  "Spectator"  in  classical  finish,  and  yet  in  materials 
and  force  they  are,  if  anything,  superior  to  those  of  the  "London 
Times."  The  difference  lies  in  this,  that  the  "Spectator"  is  a  week- 
ly, and  after  these  editorials  have  been  poured  red-hot  into  their 
sandy  molds,  they  are  allowed  to  cool,  and  then  subjected  to  careful 
polishing.  The  "Spectator"  is  not  a  large  paper,  and  it  is  plainly 
issued — the  cost  of  manufacture  not  being  half  what  it  would  be  in 
Chicago,  and  yet  they  charge  thirteen  cents  per  copy  for  it — nearly 
♦seven  dollars  a  year.  The  work  is  not  magazine  or  review  writing, 
but  newspaper  writing  of  the  highest  class.  There  is  nothing  ap- 
proaching to  this  in  religious  Journalism,  but  there  will  be,  and 
there  ought  to  have  been  before  now. 

The  religious  press  is  often  spoken  of  as  a  means  of  great  influ- 
ence, but  he  who  regards  his  paper  as  a  means  for  giving  him  per- 
sonal influence  is  a  politician,  not  an  editor;  and  in  seeking  to  save 
his  life  thus,  he  is  dead  sure  to  lose  it.  The  editor  has  no  time, 
nor  ambition,  for  anything  but  his  art.  He  seeks  to  make  a  first- 
class  paper  in  every  particular.  He  sees  nothing  bevond  the  four 
walls  of  his  sanctum,  and  he  works  for  excellence,  not  for  influence. 

An  established  paper,  like  any  of  the  first-class  religious  journals, 
is  a  creation  of  slow  growth,  but  it  is  practically  indestructible,  and 
it  is  very  foolish  for  an  individual,  or  any  number  of  them,  to  make 
a  crusade  against  it.  Fortunately  the  tendency  of  the  work  is  to 
make  the  editor  teachable,  if  he  be  a  man  of  true  piety  and  honesty. 

I  asked  my  neighbor,  Mr.  Edward  Goodman,  proprietor  of  "The 
Standard,"  what  his  object  was  in  newspaper  work.  "First,"  he 
said,  "to  promote  spiritual  life;  and,  second,  to  advance  the  inter- 
ests of  the  denomination.  I  never  think,"  he  said,  "of  the  moneyed 
revenue,  except  to  that  end." 

Editor  Major  Robinson  says:  "The  object  of  a  religious  news- 
paper is  to  stimulate  the  piety  and  elevate  the  morality  of  its  con- 
stituency, and  to  furnish  the  family  with  wholesome  and  instructive 
reading." 

Editor  Dr.  Smith  says:  "We  should  make  it  an  object  to  provide 
a  complete  family  paper — to  furnish  all  the  kinds  of  reading  most 
needed  in  the  family.  It  should  be  first  of  all  religious,  because 
^Religion  is  the  chief  concern  of  mortals.'  While  it  should  give  its 
denominational  intelligence  freely,  it  should  have  all  the  religious 
intelligence  which  tends  to  teach,  stimulate  and  guide." 


ROMAN  CATHOLIC  CHRISTIANITY. 


Rev.  a.  p.  Doyle,  Paulist  Fathers^ 

NEW    YORK. 

[The  following  is  the  profession  of  faith  made  on  joining  the  Catholic 
Church.  It  is  received  by  a  priest  before  the  altar,  though  not  necessarily 
in  presence  of  the  congregation.  It  is  omitted  when  the  convert  has  not 
previously  had  any  form  of  baptism  : 

I, ,  having  before  my  eyes  the  holy  Gospels,  which  I  touch 

with  my  hand,  and  knowing  that  no  one  can  be  saved  without  that  faith 
which  the  Holy,  Catholic,  Apostolic  Roman  Church  holds,  believes,  and 
teaches,  against  which  I  grieve  that  I  have  greatly  erred,  inasmuch  as  I  have 
held  and  believed  doctrines  opposed  to  her  teachings — 

I  now,  with  grief  and  contrition  for  my  past  errors,  profess  that  I  believe 
fhe  Holy,  Catholic,  Apostolic  Roman  Church  to  be  the  only  and  true  Church 
established  on  earth  by  Jesus  Christ,  to  which  I  submit  myself  with  my  whole 
heart.  I  believe  all  the  articles  that  she  proposes  to  my  belief,  and  I  reject 
and  condemn  all  that  she  rejects  and  condemns,  and  I  am  ready  to  observe 
all  that  she  commands  me.     And  especially,  I  profess  that  I  believe: 

One  only  God,  in  three  divine  persons,  distinct  from,  and  equal  to,  each 
other — that  is  to  say,  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost ; 

The  Catholic  doctrine  of  the  Incarnation,  Passion,  Death,  and  Resurrection 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ :  and  the  personal  union  of  the  two  Natures,  the 
divine  and  the  human  ;  the  divine  Maternity  of  the  most  holy  Mary,  together 
with  her  most  spotless  Virginity ; 

The  true,  real,  and  substantial  presence  of  the  Body  and  Blood,  together 
with  the  Soul  and  Divinity,  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  in  the  most  Holy  Sac- 
rament of  the  Eucharist ; 

The  seven  Sacraments  instituted  by  Jesus  Christ  for  the  salvation  of  man- 
kind ;  that  is  to  say,  Baptism,  Confirmation,  Eucharist,  Penance,  Extreme 
Unction,    Order,   Matrimony  ; 

Purgatorj-,  the  Resurrection  of  the  dead.  Everlasting  life ; 

The  Primacy,  not  only  of  honor  but  also  of  jurisdiction,  of  the  Roman 
Pontiff,  successor  of  St.  Peter.  Prince  of  the  Apostles,  Vicar  of  Jesus  Christ ; 

The  veneration  of  the  saints,  and  of  their  images ; 

The  authority  of  the  Apostolic  and  Ecclesiastical  Traditions,  and  of  the 
Holy  Scriptures,  which  we  must  interpret  and  understand  only  in  the  sense 
which  our  holy  mother  the  Catholic  Church  has  hold,  and  does  hold  ; 

And  everything  else  that  has  been  define<l  and  declared  by  the  sacred  Canons,. 
and  by  the  General  Councils,  and  particularly  by  the  holy  Council  of  Trent, 
and  dclivorpd,  defined,  and  declared  by  the  General  Council  of  the  Vatican,  es- 
pecially concerning  the  Primacy  of  the  Roman  Pontiff,  and  his  infallible 
teaching  authority. 

176 


HIS    HOLINESS,  POPE    LEO    XIII. 

The  common  welfare  urgently  demands  a  return  to  Him  from  whom  we  should 
never  have  gone  astray  :  to  Him  who  is  the  Way,  the  Truth  and  the  Life— and  this 
on  the  part  not  only  of  individuals  but  of  society  as  a  whole.— Z^o  XIII.'s  Message  to 
the  Twe?itteth  Century. 


ROMAN    CATHOLIC    CHRISTIANITY.  177 

With  a  sincere  iieart,  therefoi-e,  and  with  unfeigned  faith,  I  detest  and 
abjure  every  error,  heresy,  and  sect  opposed  to  the  said  Holy,  Catholic,  and 
Apostolic  Roman  Church.  So  help  me  God,  and  these  His  holy  Gospels, 
which  I  touch  with  my  hand. — Mass-Book  for  Non-Catholics,  pp.  71,  72. — 
Ed.] 

*  *  * 

In  order  to  fully  appreciate  the  doctrinal  life  of  the  Roman  Cath- 
olic Church  to-day,  it  is  necessary  to  comprehend  certain  funda- 
mental principles.  While  the  revelation  of  Christian  truth  was 
closed  with  the  ascension  of  Christ  into  Heaven,  still  there  has  been 
a  development  in  the  doctrinal  system.  The  many  truths  and  pre- 
cepts which  He  gave  us  that  are  now  recorded  in  the  inspired  writ- 
ings of  the  Evangelists  are  not  mere  lifeless  facts,  but  are  rather 
germ-ideas  capable  of  development  and  were  intended  to  be  de- 
veloped. 

The  revelation  of  Christianity  was  not  the  passing  to  men  of  a 
system  of  dogmas  to  be  compared  only  to  a  bag  of  stones,  each  one 
of  which  is  a  solid,  cold,  lifeless  fact  with  no  power  of 
growing  or  of  being  anything  but  a  stone.  It  was  rather 
giving  to  mankind  a  package  of  seeds  which  were  designed 
to  grow  and  develop  into  a  beautiful  garden.  This  garden 
to-day  is  the  doctrinal  and  devotional  system  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church.  The  Catholic  Church,  with  all  its  magnificent  ritual,  with 
its  systematic  codices  of  laws  and  precepts,  its  enchiridions 
of  clearly  defined  dogmatic  truths,  its  hierarchical  orders  and 
grades  of  offices,  its  complete  and  sometimes  puzzling  devo- 
tional life,  to  the  casual  observer,  is  different  from  the  sim- 
plicity of  the  Gospel  Church  where  the  truths  were  enunciated  by 
the  wayside,  where  the  only  ritual  which  surrounded  Christ  was  a 
profession  of  faith  in  His  Divinity,  no  matter  how  awkwardly  made, 
and  where  the  only  act  of  devotion  that  was  asked  was  "Lovest  thou 
Me?"  and  yet  in  reality  it  is  identical  with  the  church  formed  by 
Christ. 

There  is  nothing  in  the  Catholic  Church  to-day  that  was  not 
contained  in  germ  in  the  words  that  Christ  spoke  or  the  revelation 
which  he  made.  The  garden  is  the  outgrowth  of  the  seeds ;  the 
church  is  the  development  of  the  seed-ideas  which  Christ  gave  to  the 
Apostles.  It  is  necessary  to  fully  appreciate  this  theory  of  develop- 
ment before  any  one  can  approach  a  comparative  study  of  the  doc- 
trines and  practices  of  the  Catholic  Church. 


178  CHRISTENDOM. 

The  Catholic  idea  of  a  "church'''  is  not  merely  the  truth  affixed  in 
the  individual  heart  by  the  operation  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  though  this 
is  a  part  of  the  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  but  it  is  an  existing,  corpo- 
rate entity  whose  body  consists  of  all  the  faithful  scattered  through- 
out the  world,  of  whatever  tribe  or  people,  believing  all  the  teachings 
of  Christ  and  living  in  obedience  to  the  lawfully  constituted  bishops 
with  the  Pope  at  their  head;  and  whose  soul  is  the  Spirit  of  God 
who  descended  on  the  Apostles  at  Pentecost,  animating  the  body, 
giving  life  to  all  the  members,  guiding  the  teaching  authority  in 
the  ways  of  truth,  and  enabling  all  to  grow  to  the  fullest  stature  in 
Christ  Jesus. 

The  Catholic  Church  is  not  so  much  an  organization  as  it  is  an 
organism.  When  this  distinction  is  fully  appreciated,  one  can  far 
more  readily  understand  what  the  church  is  and  what  she  is  destined 
to  do  for  mankind.  An  organization  is  a  gathering  of  individuals 
in  which  the  whole  possesses  what  is  contributed  to  it  by  the  parts. 
Apart  from  the  individuals  which  make  it  up,  it  possesses  nothing 
of  itself.  The  individuals  may  separate  from  the  whole  and  they 
will  take  away  all  the  innate  life  that  is  their  own.  Not  so  is  it 
with  an  organism — a  human  being  is  an  organism,  in  which  all  the 
organs  and  members  depend  on  their  junction  with  the  body  for 
their  life.  Cut  off  a  hand  or  a  leg,  the  life  does  not  go  with  it ;  it 
is  "lifeless,"  it  decays.  So,  too,  is  it  with  the  tree;  a  branch  cut 
from  the  trunk  withers  away. 

In  this  sense  the  church  is  not  an  organization  that  has  its  exist- 
ence through  a  number  of  people  who  believe  in  interpreting  Scrip- 
ture in  the  same  way  and  are  ready  to  make  public  profession  of 
their  concurrent  interpretation;  but  it  is  an  organism  in  which  the 
Holy  Ghost  is  the  animating  principle,  and  by  establishing  the 
proper  relationship  one  may  partake  of  that  Divine  life  which  flows 
from  the  soul  throughout  the  entire  body.  To  be  cut  away  from 
this  body  is  spiritual  death.  It  follows  from  this  exposition  of  the 
"Church  Idea"  that  the  Catholic  Church  must  of  necessity,  in  ap- 
pearance at  least,  be  entirely  different  to-day  from  what  she  was  a 
century  or  ten  centuries  ago,  though  in  reality  she  is  the  same 
church,  teaching  the  same  essential  truths.  Growth  and  develop- 
ment necessitate  change.  It  follows,  also,  that  though  she  changes, 
etill,  because  the  active  principle  of  the  church,  the  Holy  Ghost,  is  the 
same  God  who  founded  her,  she  cannot  depart  from  the  truth  that 
was  enunciated  amidst  the  Judean  hills ;  and  as  Christ  destined  her 


ROMAN    CATHOLIC    CHRISTIANITY.  179 

to  be  the  means  of  salvation  for  all  time  for  all  the  world,  through 
all  time,  she  will  never  depart  from  that  truth. 

There  will  be,  as  time  goes  on,  a  clearer  enunciation  of  those 
truths,  a  practical  exemplification  of  them  as  it  becomes  necessary 
to  apply  them  to  the  ever-changing  affairs  of  men  and  a  more  accu- 
rate definition  of  great  principles  when  they  are  assailed  by  mis- 
guided antagonists.  But  in  all,  the  teaching  authority  of  the 
church  will  be  guided  by  the  Spirit  of  Truth  so  that  the  world  will 
not  be  led  into  error,  and  mankind  will  know  where  are  to  be  found 
"the  way,  the  truth  and  the  life." 

Having  premised  these  things,  we  are  ready  to  come  to  the  con- 
sideration of  her  distinctive  teachings.  The  operation  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  is  twofold — one  through  the  corporate  body  as  is  indicated  by 
the  words  of  Christ:  /  will  ask  the  Father  and  He  shall  give  you 
another  Paraclete,  that  He  m.ay  abide  with  you  forever  (John  xiv, 
16) ;  He  will  teach  you  all  things  (John  xiv,  26)  :  and  the  other  on 
the  individual  mind  and  heart,  convincing  it  of  the  truth  and  per- 
sonally bringing  it  unto  sanctification — You  when  you  were  dead 
in  your  sins  He  hath  quickened  together  with  Him,  forgiving  you 
all  offences  (Col.  ii,  13). 

It  sometimes  may  happen  that  the  belief  of  the  individual  may  be 
allowed  to  drift  into  opposition  to  the  teaching  authority  of  the 
church.  It  may  become  impossible  for  one  to  persuade  himself  that 
such  and  such  teachings  are  true.  But  as  we  know  truth  is  one  and 
the  same  at  all  times  and  all  places,  the  same  spirit  of  truth  cannot 
teach  the  church  one  thing  and  the  individual  the  opposite  thing. 
If  there  be  an  opposition  between  the  teaching  church  and  the  be- 
lieving individual,  the  church  must  be  right  and  the  individual 
wrong.  For  on  the  church  alone  has  Christ  bestowed  the  gift  of 
iaerrancy.  She  is  the  pillar  and  the  ground  of  truth  (Tim.  iii,  15). 
The  gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail  against  her  (Matt,  xvi,  18).  It 
is,  therefore,  the  duty  of  the  individual  to  yield  his  own  conviction 
to  the  infallible  teaching  of  the  church,  and  that  not  in  any  slavish 
submission  or  self-stultification,  but  on  the  reasonable  principle  that 
the  church  is  an  infallible  guide  and  cannot  err.  As  my  Father 
hath  sent  Me,  I  also  send  you  (John  xx,  21).  He  that  heareth  you 
heareth  Me,  and  He  that  despiseth  you  despiseth  Me  (Luke  x,  16). 
He  that  helieveth  and  is  baptized  shall  be  saved,  he  that  believeth 
not  shall  be  condemned  (Mark  xvi,  16). 

On  this  reasonable  basis  the  church  secures  a  marvelous  unity  of 


180  CHRISTENDOM. 

belief.  She  is  everywhere  one  in  her  teaching  and  in  the  complete, 
whole-souled  acceptance  of  her  teaching  by  her  children.  She  pre- 
sents to  the  world  a  wonderful  homogeneity,  and  in  these  days  of 
free-thinking  and  independence  of  mind  there  is  no  more  marvelous 
spectacle  than  the  fact  that  two  hundred  and  sixty  millions  of  people, 
some  of  whom  are  of  the  highest  intelligence  and  the  utmost  freedom 
of  will,  accept  her  teaching  and  bow  in  submission  to  her  voice  as  the 
voice  of  God. 

In  order  that  there  may  not  be  any  doubt  as  to  what  the  teaching 
of  the  church  is,  Christ  has  constituted  a  living  voice  to  speak  for 
Him.  In  order  to  yield  our  conviction  to  the  teaching  of  the 
church,  as  indicated  above,  there  must  not  be  any  danger  of  our  mis- 
interpreting or  misunderstanding  the  sense  of  established  formulas. 
Mere  written  statements  in  a  book,  no  matter  how  accurately  formu- 
lated, can  never  preclude  the  possibility  of  this  danger.  They  can- 
not correct  one  if  he  does  misunderstand  or  misinterpret  the  genuine 
sense.  Hence  a  living  voice  is  necessary  so  that  when  one  does 
misunderstand  he  can  be  corrected,  when  he  does  drift  away  he  can 
be  called  back.  He  who  speaks  for  an  infallible  church  must  him- 
self be  infallible  if  he  would  command  the  assent  of  the  children  of 
men.  When  he  teaches  the  whole  church  on  questions  of  dogma  and 
morals  he  must  be  preserved  from  leading  the  church  astray.  Hence 
the  Catholic  Church  has  always  believed,  from  the  very  beginning, 
through  the  nineteen  hundred  years  of  her  life,  that  the  Pope,  when 
teaching  ex  cathedra,  cannot  teach  error.  It  was  in  the  Vatican 
Council,  when  this  traditional  belief  of  the  church  was  assailed,  that 
it  was  clearly  defined  and  incorporated  into  the  formulas  of  the 
church.  It  was  no  new  doctrine,  but  merely  a  new  formulation  of 
a  doctrine  as  old  as  Christianity  itself.  Simon,  Simon,  behold  Satan 
hath  desired  to  have  you  that  he  may  sift  you  as  wheat.  But  I 
have  prayed  for  thee  that  thy  faith  fail  not,  and  thou  being  once 
converted,  confirm  thy  brethren  (Luke  xxii,  32). 

It  may  be  useful  to  quote  here  the  exact  words  of  the  decree  of 
the  Vatican  Council :  ''Wherefore,  faithfully  adhering  to  the  tra- 
dition received  from  the  beginning  of  the  Christian  Faith,  for  the 
glory  of  God  our  Saviour,  the  exaltation  of  the  Catholic  religion, 
and  the  salvation  of  the  Christian  people,  we,  the  Sacred  Council 
approving,  teach  and  define  that  it  is  a  dogma  divinely  revealed,  that 
the  Roman  Pontiff,  when,  discharging  the  office  of  Pastor  and 
Teacher  of  all  Christians,  by  reason  of  his  supreme  Apostolic  author- 


ROMAN    CATHOLIC    CHRISTIANITY.  181 

ity,  he  defines  a  doctrine  regarding  faith  or  morals  to  be  held  hj  the 
whole  church — he,  by  the  Divine  assistance  promised  to  him  in 
Blessed  Peter,  possesses  that  infallibility  with  which  the  Blessed 
Redeemer  willed  that  His  church  should  be  endowed  in  defining 
doctrine  regarding  faith  and  morals,  and  that  therefore  such  defini- 
tions of  the  said  Roman  Pontiff  are  of  themselves  unalterable  and 
not  from  the  consent  of  the  church."      (IV  Sess.,  Chap.  IV.) 

It  is  needless  to  explain  that  this  doctrine  of  Papal  infallibility 
does  not  include  Papal  impeccability,  nor  does  it  include  Papal  in- 
errancy in  politics,  or  in  science,  or  in  any  matters  save  those  of 
faith  and  morals;  and  one  can  readily  appreciate  what  a  compact- 
ness this  doctrine  gives  to  the  whole  system  of  Christian  teaching. 
It  is  not  only  the  broad  and  solid  and  unshakable  foundation,  but 
it  is  the  cement  that  gives  the  bond  to  the  whole  superstructure. 
Catholics  do  not  waver  in  their  faith,  they  are  not  tortured  with 
doubts,  their  spiritual  life  is  not  blighted  by  the  withering  blasts  of 
infidelity,  and  the  appeals  to  them  do  not  consist  in  exliortations  to 
faith,  since  the  faith  is  never  shaken,  but  they  are  appeals  to  better 
living  and  to  higher  spirituality. 

The  indwelling  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the  church  is  not  only  the 
source  of  her  doctrinal  inerrancy,  but  it  is  the  active  principle  of  the 
holiness  of  the  church,  that  is  manifested  by  the  practice  of  heroic 
sanctity  by  many  of  her  children,  by  the  standards  of  morality  which 
she  sets  up  and  by  the  influence  of  her  teaching  in  the  social  order. 
Whatever  there  is  of  Christian  civilization  is  the  work  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church.  The  long  bead-roll  of  the  saints,  from  the  mar- 
tyrs who  died  in  the  Pagan  Coliseum  to  the  Father  Damiens  of  to- 
da}',  who  leave  all  the  world  holds  dear  and  sacrifice  themselves  in 
order  to  care  for  the  sick  and  the  unfortunate — these  are  the  fruit 
of  the  Holy  Spirit,  who  is  ever  with  His  church.  Undoubtedly, 
there  are  many  instances  of  sublime  sanctity  outside  the  pale  of  her 
membership,  and  these,  too,  are  stimulated  to  heroism  by  the  same 
Holy  Spirit ;  but  the  natural  and  ordinary  channels  of  the  grace  of 
God  are  the  sacramental  channels  of  the  Catholic  Church.  As  it  is 
through  the  teaching  authority  personified  in  the  Holy  Father  that 
the  pastures  of  truth  are  preserved  from  contamination  by  the  poi- 
sonous weeds  of  error,  so  it  is  through  the  sacramental  system  that 
the  streams  of  Divine  grace  are  sent  to  impart  fertility  and  virility 
to  the  practical  living  of  Christian  men. 

The  sacraments  are  the  seven  channels  instituted  bv  Christ,  and 


182  CHRISTENDOM. 

they  are  filled  with  the  Divine  graces  from  the  reservoir  of  the  Re- 
demption.    They  each  carry  to  the  soul  a  saving  grace. 

The  grace  of  (1)  Baptism  regenerates.  By  means  of  it  the  child 
is  born  again  into  the  newness  of  the  supernatural  life.  There  are 
established  between  the  soul  and  God  relations  of  adoption  whereby 
we  cry  Abba,  Father!  (2)  Confirmation  is  a  strengthening  grace, 
imparting  vigor  of  spirituality  that  one  is  led  to  fight  for,  and,  if 
necessary,  to  die  for,  the  faith  that  is  in  him.  (3)  Penance  is  the  for- 
giving grace ;  when  one  going  down  from  Jerusalem  to  Jericho  falls 
amidst  the  robbers  of  temptation,  who  despoil  him  of  the  mantle  of 
purity  and  leave  him  naked  of  God's  friendship,  and  cast  him  aside 
from  the  pathways  of  righteousness,  Penance,  like  the  good  Samar- 
itan, comes  along  and  picks  him  up,  binds  up  the  wounds  sin  has 
made,  cares  for  him  during  the  periods  of  convalescence,  until  he  is 
finally  restored  to  spiritual  health.  (4)  Holy  Eucharist  is  the 
nourishing  grace.  It  is  the  real  Body  and  Blood  of  Christ,  which 
unless  we  eat  thereof  we  cannot  have  life.  Amen,  Amen,  I  say  unto 
you:  Unless  you  eat  the  Flesh  of  the  Son  of  Man  and  drink  His 
Blood,  you  cannot  have  life  in  you,  and  he  that  eateth  my  Flesh 
and  drinketh  my  Blood  hath  everlasting  life,  and  I  will  raise  him 
up  the  last  day  (John  vi,  54).  It  is  the  manna  which  has  come 
down  from  heaven  to  support  us  spiritually  while  we  wander  through 
the  deserts  of  this  life  into  the  Promised  Land.  (5)  Extreme 
Unction  is  the  sustaining  grace  in  that  last  fierce  conflict  with  the 
Evil  One.  When  the  weakness  of  dissolution  has  come  and  cold 
sweats  of  death  are  on  our  brow,  the  enemy  of  our  soul  makes  a  last 
determined  effort  to  seize  us,  the  grace  of  Extreme  Unction  fortifies 
us  against  his  attacks  and  guards  the  soul  in  its  upward  flight  until 
it  gains  its  home  in  heaven.  Then,  for  the  special  states  in  life, 
there  are  assisting  graces — (6)  Holy  Orders,  to  enable  the  priesthood 
to  guard  the  sanctities  of  their  office;  and  (7)  Matrimony,  to  help 
the  married  pair  to  consecrate  the  love  they  have  for  each  other  and 
enable  them  to  bring  up  their  children  in  the  fear  of  God.  Like  a 
good  mother  the  Catholic  Church  takes  the  child  in  infancy,  watches 
over  him  as  the  years  roll  by,  strengthens  liim  to  meet  life's  con- 
flicts; if  he  falls,  picks  him  up  again;  ever  places  before  him  the 
ideals  of  perfection,  consecrates  the  great  love-passion  of  his  heart, 
follows  him  to  the  end,  and  when  his  eyes  are  closed  in  death  she 
lays  his  body  with  her  blessing  in  the  grave  to  await  the  resurree- 
tioii  day,  while  by  her  prayers  and  her  suffrages  she  follows  the  soul 


ROMAN    CATHOLIC    CHEISTIANITY.  183 

into  its  place  of  purgation,  and  does  not  leave  it  till  the  last  traces 
of  sin  are  washed  away  and  it  is  prepared  for  admittance  in  the 
realms  of  the  blest.  The  continual  flowing  of  these  graces  all 
through  life,  from  the  cradle  to  the  grave,  creates  among  Catholics 
types  of  sanctity  that  are  known  only  to  those  whose  eyes  are  so 
spiritualized  that  they  can  read  the  inner  secret  of  hearts. 

The  lives  of  the  saints  constitute  a  literature  rarely  known  out- 
side the  Catholic  Church,  and  one  that  is  replete  with  multiplied 
marvels  of  heroism.  The  continual  flowing  of  these  graces  elevates 
the  general  average  of  holiness,  so  that  in  convent  and  in  cloister, 
among  all  ranks  of  society,  under  the  mantle  of  the  king  and  the  rags 
of  the  beggar,  there  flourish  the  most  beautiful  flowers  of  sanctity. 

The  Catholic  Church  maintains  the  standards  of  holy  living  by 
placing  as  conditions  for  admittance  to  holy  communion  a  profession 
of  profound  sorrow  for  sin  committed,  joined  with  a  determination 
never  to  sin  again  and  a  willingness  to  repair  whatever  injury  has 
been  done  by  sin.  This  is  the  very  least  that  is  exacted  for  full 
membership;  though  if  the  sinner  does  not  possess  this  he  is  not 
east  out.  In  the  church  there  are  both  good  and  bad ;  the  cockle 
grows  with  the  wheat ;  in  the  net  there  are  both  good  and  bad  fishes. 
But  like  a  good  mother,  she  is  patient  and  loving  with  her  disobedient 
children.  Though  they  do  bring  disgrace  on  her  at  times,  still  she 
claims  them  as  her  own  and  waits  till  the  time  comes  when  they  are 
ready  to  meet  her  standards  of  holy  living  before  she  admits  them  to 
the  Sacred  Table.  But  beyond  these  simple  conditions  of  repent- 
ance there  are  no  heights  of  sanctity  and  union  with  God  to  which 
she  does  not  urge  her  children  to  aspire. 

Finally,  by  the  influence  of  the  church's  teaching  in  the  social 
order  she  is  the  very  saviour  of  society.  She  guards  and  protects  the 
family  by  affirming  the  indissolubility  of  the  marriage  tie;  she  sets 
herself,  with  all  her  mighty  influence,  against  the  divorce  abomina- 
tion which  is  prostituting  domestic  virtue  in  our  modern  life;  she 
interprets  strictly  the  precept  of  Christ  that  What  God  hath  joined 
together  let  no  man  put  asunder.  She  has  in  this  way  saved  the 
Christian  home  and  all  that  it  means  of  education  and  preservation 
to  the  growing  child.  Moreover,  she  has  maintained  the  highest 
ideals  of  chastity  by  singing  the  praises  of  the  state  of  virginity,  by 
encouraging  her  priesthood  and  her  thousands  of  cloistered  men  and 
women  to  the  highest  practice  of  it.  Thus,  in  a  most  forceful  way, 
she  says  to  the  world  that  men  and  women  may  live  without  yielding 


184  CHRISTENDOM. 

to  sensuality.  The  practical  effect  of  this  is  felt  throughout  the  en- 
tire married  state,  where  people  are  taught  restraint  of  passion  and 
that  a  life  of  continence  is  among  the  easy  possibilities. 

The  church  has  in  her  hand  the  key  to  the  labor  problems 
which  harass  us.  In  this  country  particularly  the  scramble  for 
wealth  is  going  on  with  all  its  intensity.  In  the  strife  for  preemi- 
nence many  are  thrown  down  and  trampled  to  the  earth ;  others  are 
cast  by  the  wayside.  The  fierce  striving  for  the  biggest  prize  has 
made  men  disregard  all  human  rights.  Classes  have  been  set  over 
against  the  masses.  Men  have  climbed  to  prominence  over  the 
backs  of  their  fellow-men.  The  result  of  this  social  strife  has  been 
the  reducing  of  thousands  to  a  slavery  more  galling  than  the  negro 
slavery  of  a  century  ago.  Life  is  to  many  a  child  born  into  it  but  a 
damning  fate.  The  segregation  of  wealth  into  the  hands  of  the  few 
has  left  the  many  in  the  grasp  of  a  most  distressful  poverty,  so  that 
with  all  our  wealth  there  is  abroad  the  gaunt  figure  of  want;  and 
Avith  our  teeming  markets  the  pitiful  hand  of  beggary  is  stretched 
forth. 

There  is  only  one  remedy  for  all  these  terrible  social  evils,  and 
that  is  the  religious  one.  The  root  of  the  social  evil  is  the  cruel 
spirit  of  greed  and  of  grasping  avarice.  No  law  can  legislate  this 
out  of  existence ;  no  policeman's  club  can  subdue  it.  To  conquer  it 
there  is  needed  a  power  which  reaches  the  heart.  It  must  be  a  force 
which  can  turn  men's  minds  away  from  the  pleasures  of  life  and  bid 
them  fix  the  desires  of  their  souls  on  the  greater  riches  beyond  the 
grave.  It  must  be  an  agency  that  spans  the  gulf  that  avarice  has 
created  between  the  rich  and  the  poor ;  that  can  teach  both  the  great 
principle  of  the  brotherhood  of  man,  the  trusteeship  of  wealth,  the 
dignity  of  labor  and  the  common  destiny  provided  by  a  Heavenly 
Father  for  all.  Religion  alone  can  do  this.  But  to  do  it  effectually 
a  religion  must  be  strong  and  thoroughly  organized.  It  must  be 
one  that  is  down  among  the  poor,  commanding  the  love  of  their 
hearts.  It  must  be  one  whose  precepts  can  be  enforced  by  spiritual 
penalties,  if  need  be,  by  the  sick  bed,  or  even  by  the  open  grave. 
The  Catholic  Church  can  do  all  this  in  a  most  effectual  way.  She 
therefore  is  able  to  give  the  social  pax  vdbiscum  to  the  age.  The 
Encyclical  of  Leo  XIII,  "The  Condition  of  Labor,"  has  been  pro- 
nounced by  noted  publicists  to  be  the  Magna  Cliarta  of  the  rights  and 
responsibilities  of  the  wage-earners  of  the  world. 

The  Catholic  Church,  by  the  indwelling  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  is, 


ROMAN    CATHOLIC    CHRISTIANITY.  185 

then,  the  very  salt  of  the  earth,  saving  it  from  the  corruption  of  vice 
and  preserving  it  sweet  and  pure  from  the  degenerating  and  decom- 
posing action  of  evil.  The  presence  of  the  Holy  Ghost  with  her 
makes  her  the  world-wide  religion,  at  home  amidst  every  natioji 
and  tribe  and  people,  no  matter  how  much  they  differ  in  language, 
manners  and  genius.  The  Latin  language  gives  her  a  universal 
means  of  interchange  of  thought.  The  spiritual  authority  which  the 
cliurch  possesses  enables  her  to  bring  all  minds  into  a  complete 
unity  of  belief,  so  that  wherever  one  finds  a  Catholic  he  is  the  exact 
duplicate  in  doctrinal  life  of  every  other  Catholic.  Ask  a  child  in 
the  Philippines  the  questions  in  his  catechism  and  one  will  get  ex- 
actly the  same  answers  as  one  would  get  if  he  had  the  patience  to  go 
through  and  ask  every  one  of  the  200,000,000  Catholics  scattered 
throughout  the  earth.  In  these  days  of  crumbling  creeds  and  of 
drifting  away  from  old-time  dogmatic  moorings,  the  spectacle  of  a 
united  church,  homogeneous  in  its  belief  and  uniform  in  its  ethical 
exactions,  is  something  to  charm  the  soul  of  man  and  gladden  the 
heart  of  God.  Nothing  but  the  compelling  influence  of  the  Divine 
Presence  can  bring  it  about. 

Not  only  is  the  church  everywhere  the  same,  but  she  is  perpetual  in 
her  life.  She  is  to-day  the  only  thing  that  goes  back  to  classic 
civilization.  She  can  affirm  the  inspiration  of  the  Gospels,  for  she 
was  present  when  they  were  written.  The  church  can  assure  us  of 
the  conversion  of  the  European  races,  for  she  it  was  who  brought  it 
about.  She  can  point  to  all  the  artistic  treasures  of  the  ages,  to  the 
great  cathedrals  of  Europe,  to  the  famous  Madonnas  of  the  art  gal- 
leries, to  the  masterpieces  of  poetry  and  song,  for  it  was  she  who 
inspired  them  all. 

She  has  borne  through  the  ages  the  Apostolic  privileges  of  the  re- 
mission of  sin  in  God's  name — As  the  Father  hath  sent  Me,  I  also 
send  you.  When  He  had  said  this  He  breathed  on  them,  and  He 
sai-d  to  them,  Receive  ye  the  Holy  Ghost.  Whose  sins  you  shall  for- 
give they  are  forgiven  them;  ivhose  sins  you  shall  retain  they  are  re- 
tained (John  XX,  23) — and  that  other  Apostolic  privilege  of  conse- 
crating the  bread  and  wine  in  the  sacrifice  of  the  Mass  and  changing 
it  into  the  Body  and  Blood  of  Christ  (John  vi,  52-56 ;  Matt,  xxvi, 
28). 

These  two  essential  practices  in  the  life  of  a  Catholic,  auricular 
confession  for  the  purpose  of  receiving  the  forgiveness  of  sin,  and 
sacramental  communion,  in  which  not  bread  and  wine  but  the  real 


186  CHRISTENDOM. 

Body  and  Blood  of  Christ  are  received,  are  sustained  by  the  exercise 
of  the  sacerdotal  power  which  was  given  to  the  Apostles  by  Christ  and 
handed  down  in  an  unbroken  succession  through  the  generations  of 
duly  ordained  bishops  and  priests  unto  their  legitimate  successors  of 
the  present  day.  The  possession  of  these  Divine  gifts  establishes 
the  identity  between  the  church  of  the  nineteenth  century  and  the 
church  of  the  first  century,  and  constitutes,  in  the  Catholic  Church 
of  to-day,  the  Apostolic  succession. 

I  have  endeavored  in  the  foregoing  to  make  a  simple  exposition  of 
the  Catholic  Church,  and  to  explain  what  her  doctrines  and  her  prac- 
tices are  as  they  arise  out  of  her  very  nature,  as  a  world-wide  and 
perpetual  institution  destined  to  carry  the  effects  of  the  Redemption 
through  all  ages  even  to  the  consummation  of  the  world,  and  make 
them  operative  in  the  hearts  of  men.  There  are  many  other  dis- 
tinctive beliefs  of  Roman  Catholics  which  it  is  only  possible  to  hint 
at.  The  common  beliefs  of  all  Christians — the  existence  of  one  God 
in  three  Divine  Persons,  the  Divinity  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  fall  of 
man  from  the  state  of  original  righteousness,  his  redemption  and 
regeneration  through  the  vicarious  sacrifice  of  the  God-man,  the 
ultimate  resurrection  of  the  body,  the  particular  as  well  as  the  final 
judgment,  and  the  various  states  of  being  in  the  world  beyond  the 
grave — are  enshrined  in  the  formulas  which  have  been  adopted  by  all 
Christian  churches.  There  may  be  some  difference  in  the  explana- 
tion of  details.  In  Catholic  theologies  all  these  truths  are  deline- 
ated with  all  the  exactness  of  a  scientific  study,  and  reasons  given 
from  the  authority  of  Sacred  Scripture,  the  writings  of  the  fathers 
of  the  church,  as  well  as  the  rational  basis.  But  the  few  distinctive 
beliefs  which  I  may  touch  on  are  the  devotion  to  the  Virgin  Mary, 
the  custom  of  praying  for  the  dead,  the  belief  in  Purgatory,  the 
intercession  of  the  saints,  and  the  celebration  of  the  Divine  Mys- 
teries. 

In  the  devotion  to  the  Virgin  Mary,  we  honor  her  only  with  the 
honor  due  a  creature.  We  believe  that  her  influence  vith  her  Divine 
Son  is  still  powerful  and  may  be  exercised  in  our  behalf.  She  is 
the  mother  of  the  God-man.  She  conceived  through  the  over- 
shadowing influence  of  the  Holy  Ghost ;  she  was  always  a  virgin,  and 
in  view  of  the  aforesaid  merits  of  her  Divine  Son  she  herself  was 
preserved  from  all  stain  of  original  sin  which  is  the  common  inherit- 
ance of  all  the  children  of  Adam.  By  this  latter  privilege  we  under- 
stand the  Immaculate  Conception. 


ROMAN    CATHOLIC    CHRISTIANITY.  187 

Purgatorj'  is  a  place  where  they  go  who  die  with  some  lesser  stain 
on  their  souls,  and  where  by  suffering  it  is  purged  away,  preparatory 
to  admission  into  Heaven.  The  church  teaches,  concerning  Purga- 
tory, two  points :  First,  that  there  is  a  Purgatory,  and  second,  that 
souls  detained  there  are  helped  by  our  prayers.  Hell  is  a  state  of 
eternal  separation  from  God.  There  are  no  definitions  of  the  church 
concerning  the  character  of  the  punishment.  It  is  of  Catholic 
faith,  however,  that  hell  is  eternal. 

The  Saints  are  they  who  have  fought  the  good  fight  and  are  now 
reigning  with  God.  Owing  to  their  intimacy  with  God  on  the  one 
hand,  and  their  sympathy  with  us  on  the  other,  they  become  power- 
ful pleaders  with  the  Divine  Majesty.  There  is,  however,  but  one 
mediator  between  the  soul  and  God,  and  He  is  Jesus  Christ.  Noth- 
ing is  farther  from  the  Catholic  mind  than  to  supplant  Him  by  any 
one  else.  The  Mass  is  the  clean  oblation  foretold  by  the  Prophet 
Malaehi,  that  would  be  offered  up  from  the  rising  of  the  sun  to  the 
going  down  of  the  same  (Mai.  i,  10,  11).  It  is  the  sacrifice  of  the 
Cross  offered  through  the  ages  as  a  constant  propitiation  for  sin,  in 
which  Christ  is  immolated  again,  though  in  an  unbloody  manner,  and 
by  means  of  which  the  justice  of  God  is  condoned  and  the  sins  of 
men  are  atoned  for. 

All  these  various  dogmas  are  parts  of,  yet  essential  to,  the  com- 
plete system  of  Catholic  teaching,  and  they  are  the  framework  of  that 
beautiful  organism  which  derives  its  life  from  the  indwelling  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  and  has  been  the  ark  of  salvation  to  myriads  of  the 
children  of  men. 


MISSIONS  IN  THE  ROMAN  CATHOLIC 
CHURCH,  ANNO  DOMINI  I90J. 


Kev.  a.  p.  Doyle,  Paulist  Fathers. 

NEW   YORK. 

[Long  and  far  was  this  church  the  sole  vehicle  of  Christianity,  that  bore 
it  on  over  the  storms  of  ages,  and  sheltered  it  amid  the  clash  of  nations.  It 
evangelized  the  philosophy  of  the  East,  and  gave  some  sobriety  to  its  wild  and 
voluptuous  dreams.  It  received  into  its  bosom  the  savage  conquerors  of  the 
North,  and  nursed  them  successively  out  of  utter  barbarism.  It  stood  by  the 
desert  fountain  from  which  all  modern  history  flows,  and  dropped  into  it  the 
sweetening  branch  of  Christian  truth  and  peace.  It  presided  at  the  birth  of 
art,  and  liberally  gave  its  traditions  into  the  young  hands  of  Color  and  De- 
sign. Traces  of  its  labors,  and  of  its  versatile  power  over  the  human  mind, 
are  scattered  throughout  the  globe.  It  has  consecrated  the  memory  of  the 
lost  cities  of  Africa,  and  given  to  Carthage  a  Christian  as  well  as  a  classic 
renown.  If  in  Italy  and  Spain  it  has  dictated  the  decrees  of  tyranny,  the 
mountains  of  Switzerland  have  heard  its  vespers  mingling  with  the  cry  of 
libertj',  and  its  requiem  sung  over  patriot  graves.  The  convulsions  of  Asiatic 
history  have  failed  to  overthrow  it ;  on  the  heights  of  Lebanon,  on  the  plains 
of  Armenia,  in  the  provinces  of  China,  either  in  the  secluson  of  the  convent 
or  the  stir  of  population,  the  names  of  Jesus  and  of  Mary  still  ascend.  It  is 
not  difficult  to  understand  the  enthusiasm  which  this  ancient  and  pictur- 
esque religion  kindles  in  its  disciples.  To  the  poor  peasant  who  knows  no 
other  dignity  it  must  be  a  proud  thing  to  feel  himself  a  member  of  a  vast 
community  that  spreads  from  Andes  to  the  Indus ;  that  has  bid  defiance  to 
the  vicissitudes  of  fifteen  centuries  and  adorned  itself  with  the  genius  and 
virtues  of  them  all;  that  beheld  the  transition  from  ancient  to  modern  civi- 
lization, and  itself  forms  the  connecting  link  between  the  Old  World  in 
Europe  and  the  New ;  the  missionary  of  the  nations,  the  associate  of  history, 
the  i)atron  of  art,  the  vanquisher  of  the  sword. — .Tames  Martineau. — Ed.] 
*  *  * 

It  is  difficult  to  measure  by  a  short  statement  of  facts,  or  even  by 
long  tables  of  statistics,  a  century  of  heroic  missionary  endeavor; 
nor  is  it  fair  to  other  churches  to  place  in  contrast  to  their  noble 
efforts  to  bring  the  Gospel  to  the  peoples  who  sit  in  darkness  and  the 
shadow  of  death  the  world-wide  efforts  of  an  enormous  organization 
which  claims  the  whole  earth  as  its  inheritance. 

Whether  the  contrast  be  made  or  not,  it  is  well  to  differentiate 
the  categories  in  which  various  Christian  denominations  are  work- 
ing in  the  mission  field. 

188 


ROMAN    CATHOLIC    MISSIONS.  189 

Protestant  churches  are  more  or  less  national;  hence  there  is  for 
Ihem  a  foreign  mission  field  where  different  methods  are  employed 
or  specialized  work  is  carried  on.  For  the  Catholic  Church  there 
are  no  foreign  missions,  because  she  is  not  the  church  of  one  people 
or  of  any  country,  but,  as  her  name  implies,  she  is  the  catholic  or 
universal  church,  and  her  language,  her  service,  her  preaching  and 
her  doctrines  are  the  same  in  Africa  as  in  Rome,  in  China  as  in 
Jerusalem.  She  is  the  great  tree  grown  from  the  grain  of  mustard 
seed  which  a  man  took  and  cast  into  his  garden.  It  grew  and  waxed 
a  great  tree  and  the  fowls  of  the  air  lodged  in  its  branches.  (Luke 
xiii,  19.) 

An  account,  therefore,  of  the  Catholic  missions  would  be  a  story 
not  of  planting  new  seed,  nor  of  the  strengthening  of  the  trunk  and 
limbs  of  the  old  tree,  but  rather  of  the  putting  forth  of  new  branches. 
This  particular  work  is  assigned  to  the  Congregation  de  Propaganda 
Fide  in  Rome.  A  mere  tabulated  statement  of  its  activities  fills  a 
large  volume. 

Some  idea  of  the  progress  made  during  the  last  century  may  be 
had  by  making  a  few  contrasts :  The  year  1800  was  full  of  forebod- 
ings for  Catholics  and  of  triumphs  for  the  enemies  of  the  church. 
The  French  Revolution  had  just  swept  over  France.  The  doctrines 
that  it  stood  for  were  an  attack  on  organized  Christianity  and  had 
inoculated  the  best  thought  of  the  active-minded  men  of  every  na- 
tion. The  Catholic  Church  was  down  in  the  Valley  of  the  Shadow 
of  Death.  The  wise  men  seemed  to  see  in  her  a  hoary,  worn-out 
institution,  bearing  with  some  dignity,  to  be  sure,  the  laurels  of  the 
past,  yet  feebly  tottering  to  her  ruin.  Judged  from  worldly  stand- 
ards there  did  not  appear  to  be  any  elements  of  recuperation  within 
her  bosom ;  her  strength  was  sapped  and  in  her  face  were  the  wrin- 
kles and  in  her  frame  the  emaciation  of  old  age.  England  and  Ger- 
many, who  had  been  nourished  at  her  breast,  had  gone  out  from  un- 
der her  roof-tree.  Russia  and  the  East  were  in  decadent  schism; 
Austria,  like  a  spoiled  child,  attempted  to  rule  the  household ;  Italy 
and  Spain  defended  the  old  home,  but  it  was  with  many  insults  to 
their  feeble  mother.  France  had  rebelled  and  had  enthroned  the 
goddess  of  reason  on  the  high  altar  of  Notre  Dame.  Humanly 
speaking,  there  was  but  little  hope  that  the  church  would  ever  rise 
from  her  bed  of  prostration  and  defeat. 

The  ways  of  God,  however,  are  not  the  ways  of  man.  "Why 
have  the  Gentiles  raged  and  the  people  devised  vain  things  ?     .     .     . 


190  CHRISTENDOM. 

Ask  of  me  and  I  will  give  thee  the  Gentiles  for  thy  inheritance  and 
the  uttermost  bounds  of  the  earth  for  thy  possession."  What  a  won- 
derful change  the  hundred  years  of  this  greatest  of  all  centuries  have 
brought !  In  North  Germany  ninety  years  ago  there  were  but  6,000,- 
000  Catholics,  and  they  were  steeped  in  apathy ;  but  the  iiail  of  per- 
secution came  to  them  and  awakened  them  from  their  torpor,  with 
the  result  that  to-day  they  number  13,000,000.  In  the  German 
Empire  to-day  there  are  18,600,000.  In  Switzerland,  the  home  of 
Calvin,  as  late  as  1880  the  Catholic  population  numbered  but  one- 
third — now  they  are  over  two-fifths.  In  Denmark  and  on  the  Scan- 
dinavian peninsula  the  church  practically  had  no  existence.  To- 
day there  are  a  re-established  hierarchy  with  a  completed  organiza- 
tion and  a  fast-increasing  clientage  which  already  numbers  many 
thousands.  In  Holland,  where  the  Eeformation  had  a  profound 
influence,  the  growth  of  Catholics  has  been  from  350,000  to  1,854,- 
346.  And  among  the  English-speaking  peoples,  who  lead  the  world 
in  commercial  enterprise  and  who  possess  in  a  marked  way  what  is 
known  as  the  Spirit  of  the  Age — it  is  among  these  that  the  undoing 
of  the  Eeformation  has  been  the  most  thorough.  In  1800  England 
and  Scotland  had  120,000  Catholics  and  only  65  priests,  and  they 
were  absolutely  destitute  of  churches,  schools  and  institutions.  To- 
day there  are  1  cardinal  archbishop,  2  archbishops,  18  bishops  and 
3,000  priests  who  care  for  the  spiritual  interests  of  more  than  2,000,- 
000  Catholics.  In  Australia  there  is  a  commensurate  increase.  A 
century  ago  the  church  did  not  exist  there;  to-day  there  is  a  well- 
organized  and  thoroughly  established  hierarchy  with  a  cardinal 
archbishop  at  its  head;  6  archbishops,  31  bishops,  nearly  a  thousand 
priests  and  a  Catholic  population  that  numbers  nearly  a  million 
souls.* 

Great  as  all  these  increases  are,  they  are  not  a  moiety  of  the  phe- 
nomenal growth  within  the  United  States.  A  century'  ago  there  was 
little  organization ;  Catholics  were  a  mere  handful  scattered  through- 
out the  thirteen  states,  with  no  civic  life  and  with  very  little  hope 
for  the  future.  The  forces  by  which  public  thought  and  sentiment 
are  moulded  were  antagonistic  to  the  Catholic  faith.  How  the 
church  has  grown  since  then  in  spite  of  the  most  adverse  circum- 
stances may  be  indicated  by  the  following  figures:  In  1800  there 
were  40  priests;  in  1830  the  number  increased  to  232;  in  1850  to 
1,800 ;  in  1900  to  11,636.    The  Catholic  population  during  the  same 

*  Mulhall  is  the  authority  for  the  figures. 


KOMAN    CATHOLIC    MISSIONS.  191 

period  has  grown  from  100,000  to  12,000,000.  A  comparison  \rith 
other  churches  in  point  of  view  of  acrgregate  wealth  shows  that  in 
1850  the  wealth  of  Baptist,  Methodist,  Presbyterian  and  Episco- 
palian churches  was  greater  than  that  of  the  Catholic  Church.  In 
1870  the  Catholics  had  taken  second  place,  and  now  they  are  easily 
the  first. 

Besides  the  external  growth  indicated  by  numerical  strength  and 
worldly  wealth,  the  internal  growth  indicated  by  evidences  of  ma- 
turing organization,  as  well  as  by  signs  of  increasing  spirituality,  is 
none  the  less  remarkable.  The  best  flowering  of  the  inner  life  of  the 
church  is  the  vocations  to  the  religious  orders,  through  which  men 
and  women  leave  the  lower  ranks  of  the  ordinar}'  Christian  and  con- 
secrate themselves  in  poverty,  chastity  and  obedience  to  the  perfect 
life,  following  the  higher  call  of  Christ  when  he  said  to  the  rich 
young  man  who  had  kept  the  commandments  from  his  youth  up : 
"If  thou  wilt  be  perfect,  go  sell  what  thou  hast,  give  to  the  poor  and 
come  and  follow  Me."     (Matt,  xix,  21.) 

In  1800  there  was  but  one  convent  in  the  United  States,  with  less 
than  10  religious ;  in  1900  there  are  44  distinct  orders  of  men,  with 
5,500  members  devoted  to  the  sacred  ministry,  Cliristian  teaching 
and  social  work,  and  118  communities  of  women  with  over  50,000 
nuns.  This  army  of  men  and  women  devote  themselves,  without 
hope  of  worldly  gain  to  the  alleviation  of  the  ills  of  hmnanity  in 
the  hospitals  by  the  sick-bed,  in  the  tenements  of  the  poor,  in  the 
slums  among  the  depraved,  in  the  asylums  caring  for  the  orphans, 
and  among  the  aged  who  have  been  stranded  on  the  shore  waiting 
for  the  merciful  hand  of  death  to  release  the  spirit  for  its  upward 
flight.  They  spend  and  are  spent  in  the  close  schoolroom  instruct- 
ing the  young  and  leading  them  up  the  rugged  heights  of  virtue, 
without  one  cent  of  salary;  contenting  themselves  with  meagre  fare, 
with  short  hours  of  sleep  on  a.  hard  bed,  and  long  hours  of  work  and 
prayer  and  devotion  to  the  sick  and  the  poor  and  the  wretched. 

While  this  marvellous  growth  of  the  church  throughout  the  so- 
called  missionary  countries  may  be  ascribed  to  many  causes,  still 
there  is  this  much  to  be  said  about  it — it  is  perfectly  healthy ;  it  has 
been  sound  in  doctrine,  compact  in  organization,  united  in  spirit 
and  homogeneous  in  its  expansion.  The  church  has  not  consumed, 
nor  retained  any  waste  products,  but  has  been  ready  to  lop  off  any 
diseased  or  decayed  members,  so  that  her  life-blood  is  pure  and  her 
organic  life  is  wholesome.    Another  item  of  statistics  is  valuable,  for 


192  CHRISTENDOM. 

it  is  a  pledge  of  the  continuance  of  this  growth:  There  are  in  the 
United  States  109  seminaries  for  the  education  of  priests,  training 
4,728  students  for  the  sacred  ministry.  Moreover,  there  are  over 
1,000,000  children  being  educated  in  the  Catholic  religious  schools 
of  the  country,  at  an  expense  of  $15,000,000.  This  sum  is  the  vol- 
untary contribution  of  the  Catholic  people  to  good  citizenship;  for 
the  sole  purpose  of  this  system  is  not  to  derogate  one  jot  or  tittle 
from  the  effectiveness  of  our  magnificent  system  of  public  instruc- 
tion, but  to  add  an  element  that  will  develop  conscience,  increase 
respect  for  law,  make  people  more  honest,  give  them  a  respect  for 
the  sanctity  of  an  oath  and  inculcate  in  their  hearts  a  keener  sense 
of  the  obligations  of  man  to  man. 

So  much  for  the  growth  of  the  church  among  civilized  peoples. 
One  would  imagine  that  these  branches  had  outgrown  their  mission- 
ary state,  but  they  are  included  within  the  purview  of  the  great 
missionary  department  of  the  church — the  Propaganda. 

If  we  go  farther  afield  we  shall  find  evidences  of  the  same  vigorous 
growth.  The  pagan  world  is  mapped  out  between  twenty  mission- 
ary societies,  some  composed  of  the  regular  clergy,  others  of  the  sec- 
ular clergy,  all  of  whom  are  affiliated  with  and  under  the  direction 
of  the  Propaganda.  The  islands  of  Japan,  the  Corean  peninsula, 
the  steppes  and  forests  of  Manchuria,  are  an  appanage  of  the  Mission 
Etrangeres  of  Paris.'  Kansu  and  Mongolia  offer  a  vast  and  difficult 
field  to  the  labors  of  the  Belgian  missionaries.  The  Middle  Kingdom 
is  divided  between  five  orders :  in  the  north  and  centre  are  the  Laz- 
arists  and  the  Franciscans;  in  the  west  are  the  Dominicans  and  the 
Jesuits;  in  the  east  and  south,  again,  are  the  Mission  Etrangeres. 
Passing  on  to  the  Indo-Chinese  peninsula,  we  find  the  latter  society 
in  almost  exclusive  possession  of  its  vast  block  of  territory;  only  a 
seventh  part  is  occupied  by  the  Dominicans  and  the  Milanese  For- 
eign Missionary  Society.  In  Hindustan  the  high  ground  at  the  foot 
of  the  Himalayas  is  occupied  by  the  Capuchins,  while  at  the  three 
angles  of  the  peninsula,  at  Calcutta,  at  Madure  and  Mangalore,  the 
Jesuits  are  established,  with  the  Mill  Hill  missionaries  and  the  Irish 
priests  at  Madras,  the  Salesians  of  Annecy,  Fathers  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  Carmelites,  Benedictines,  Foreign  Missionaries  of  Paris  and 
Milan  in  the  centre  and  at  certain  points  along  the  coast.  In  Ceylon 
the  Oblate  Fathers  make  headway  against  three  enemies  at  once: 
the  gurus  of  Brahma,  the  bonzes  of  Buddha  and  the  marabouts  of 
Mohammed.     Persia  belongs  to  the  Lazarists;  Mesopotamia  to  the 


EOMAN    CATHOLIC    MISSIONS.  193 

Dominicans;  Syria  and  Armenia  to  the  French  and  Italian  relig- 
ious— Jesuits,  Franciscans,  Lazarists  and  Carmelites. 

Coming  back  to  this  continent,  the  Indian  tribes  of  North  Amer- 
ica were  evangelized  during  the  middle  decades  of  the  century  by 
Father  De  Smet  and  his  companions.  Senator  Vest  bore  testimony 
on  the  floor  of  the  Senate  to  the  wonderful  results  the  black  robes  had 
achieved  among  the  Indians  of  the  Eocky  Mountain  regions.  No 
less  fervent  and  heroic  were  the  zeal,  indomitable  energy  and  self- 
sacrifice  of  the  Oblate  Fathers,  who  during  the  last  half  century 
have  carried  on  the  work  of  evangelization  throughout  the  ice-bound 
Western  territories  of  the  Canadian  Dominion.  Between  the  Ob- 
lates  and  the  Jesuits  the  territory  of  Alaska  is  divided. 

In  India  the  statistical  returns  for  the  present  year  show  that 
for  the  first  time  in  three  centuries  the  number  of  Catholics  ex- 
ceeds two  millions.  What  is  a  singularly  interesting  feature  of  this 
mission,  full  of  hope  for  its  future  fruitfulness,  is  its  complete  or- 
ganization. Its  36  dioceses  have  836  European  missionaries  and 
1,580  priests.  There  are  more  than  a  thousand  religious  men  en- 
gaged in  the  work  of  teaching,  and  2,400  nuns.  There  are  43  sem- 
inaries, with  3,200  students;  162  orphanages,  with  9,874  orphans; 
while  in  its  2,563  primary  schools  there  are  145,500  pupils. 

I  need  no  more  than  mention  the  great  continent  of  Africa.  At 
the  beginning  of  the  century  itsi  teeming  population  was  almost 
everywhere  seated  in  darkness,  while  impassable  barriers  shut  out 
every  approach  of  missionary  zeal.  Explorers,  led  on  by  love  of 
fame,  backed  by  powerful  newspaper  enterprises,  plunged  into  the 
heart  of  the  black  country.  They  blazed  the  way  for  missionary 
effort ;  the  missionaries  were  not  slow  to  follow  up  the  opportunities. 
They  immediately  parceled  out  the  country  among  themselves  so  as 
not  to  overlap  territory  or  to  neutralize  each  other's  efforts;  and  to- 
day there  are  60  dioceses  with  as  many  bishops,  each  with  a  well- 
equipped  corps  of  missionary  workers  and  an  estimated  number  of 
3,000,000  Christians,  though  under  the  immediate  supervision  of  the 
Propaganda  there  are  only  458,170  souls. 

The  eyes  of  all  the  world  are  now  turned  to  China.  The  lust  of 
empire  and  the  greed  for  gain  are  sure  to  parcel  it  out  among  the 
European  nations.  Spheres  of  influence  will  inevitably  become 
subjugated  provinces.  The  old  way  was — the  peaceful  missionary 
went  first  and  then  followed  the  militaiy  conqueror.  The  way  of 
the  modem  world  is  the  search  for  the  golden  fleece.    The  first  step 


194  CHRISTENDOM. 

is  to  locate  commercial  enterprise  and  then  back  it  up  by  the  army 
or  the  navy.  For  three  centuries  China  has  resisted  all  missionary 
effort.  From  the  days  when  the  longing  eyes  of  St.  Francis  Xavier 
looked  at  it  from  afar,  do^mi  to  the  middle  of  this  century,  little  or 
no  progress  was  made  with  the  Chinese  masses.  It  was  not  for  lack 
of  effort,  God  alone  knows  the  heroic  sacrifices;  and  the  bead-roll 
of  martyrs  who  have  shed  their  blood  in  an  attempt  to  evangelize 
the  yellow  race  is  not  by  any  means  insignificant.  Among  those 
who  thus  sacrificed  everything  that  the  world  holds  dear,  emulating 
the  heroism  of  the  early  martyrs,  we  meet  with  the  young  and  the  old 
of  every  sex  and  class  and  condition  in  life,  even  some  of  the  highest- 
rank:  military  officers,  magistrates,  teachers  and  princes  of  royal 
and  imperial  dignity.  And  of  such,  as  of  the  martyrs  of  the  early 
ages,  it  may  be  said :  "It  was  not  their  sufferings  and  death  alone, 
but  the  cause  for  which  they  suffered,  that  merited  for  them  the 
martyr's  palm." 

Two  instances  may  be  selected  to  illustrate  the  growth  of  the 
church.  In  the  vast  kingdom  of  Anam,  now  occupied  by  France, 
religious  peace  at  present  remains  undisturbed.  There  are  700,000 
Christians,  20,000  children  in  the  religious  schools,  355  priests  (na- 
tive), besides  the  European  missionaries;  and  what  is  characteristic 
of  this  field  is  the  large  number  of  native  nuns,  of  whom  there  are 
over  two  thousand.  The  church  here  has  been  swept  over  and  over 
again  by  the  fierce  outbreaks  of  Anamite  fanaticism.  In  1885  the 
outbreaks  reminded  one  of  the  Eoman  persecutions.  There  was  a 
wholesale  massacre  in  which  15  priests,  60  catechists,  270  nuns  and 
2.700  Christians  spilled  their  blood  to  be  the  seed  of  a  more  vigorous 
Christianity.  In  the  same  year,  in  the  northern  vicariate,  10  native 
priests  and  1,200  Christians  shared  the  crown  of  martyrdom. 

The  frightful  massacres  of  the  Christians  in  China  which  have 
startled  the  civilized  world  during  the  past  few  months  are  but 
the  repetition  of  what  have  been  going  on  during  the  past  two  cen- 
turies. Nevertheless,  in  spite  of  sword  and  fire  and  tyrannical  law, 
the  church  in  China  has  grown  from  200,000  at  the  beginning  of 
the  century  to  over  a  million  at  its  close.  In  one  diocese  last  year 
there  were  20,000  Chinese  inscribed  on  the  roll  of  those  who  were 
awaiting  instruction,  and  in  another  diocese  the  number  of  catechu- 
mens were  no  less  than  50,000.*    Through  an  agreement  entered  into 

*  On  Nov.  21.  1001.  Rt.  Rev.  Adolph  Favior,  Bishop  of  Peking,  reported 
more  than  1,400  baptisms  and  4,200  placed  under  instructions  in  the  Vicar- 
iate of  Peking  since  the  siege. 


ROMAN    CATHOLIC    MISSIONS.  195 

with  the  French  Government,  the  missionaries  hold  the  rank  of 
mandarins,  so  that  they  may  have  access  to  the  viceroys. 

As  to  the  type  of  man  the  Catholic  missionary  is,  and  the  way  he 
does  his  work,  I  can  do  no  better  than  quote  a  witness  who  cannot 
be  accused  of  any  partiality  to  the  Catholic  Church.  Captain 
Younghusband  writes  in  his  book,  "The  Heart  of  a  Continent,"  of  a 
visit  to  a  missionary  station  in  Manchuria  as  follows : 

"On  our  arrival  we  were  cordially  welcomed  by  two  priests,  Pere 
Litot  and  Pere  Maviel,  and  introduced  to  the  Bishop,  a  noble-look- 
ing, kindly  gentleman,  who  had  lived  for  over  thirty  years  in  this 
country,  and  who  has  since  died  there.  A  noticeable  feature  in  this 
village  was  that  the  inhabitants  were  all  Christians.  The  mission 
had  begun  by  educating  and  training  children  as  Christians.  These 
had  grown  into  men  and  had  sent  their  children  in  turn ;  and  in  the 
course  of  time  the  whole  village  had  become  Christian.  We  attended 
the  services  on  Sunday  and  were  very  much  struck  by  the  really 
sincere  and  devout  character  of  the  converts.  Brought  up  from  their 
childhood  as  Christians  and  under  the  kindly,  genial  influence  of 
these  good  priests,  the  people  of  this  village  seemed  like  a  different 
race  from  the  cold,  hard  Chinamen  around  them. 

"It  was  indeed  a  pleasure  to  see  these  French  missionaries  and  to 
have  that  warm-hearted  greeting  which  one  European  will  give  an- 
other, of  whatever  nationality,  in  the  most  distant  corners  of  the 
world. 

"Except  the  French  Consul,  who  had  been  sent  to  inquire  into 
the  outrage  on  Pere  Conroux  in  the  previous  year,  no  European  has 
ever  visited  these  different  mission  stations,  and  we  on  our  part  had 
not  met  a  European  for  several  months,  so  the  delight  of  this  meet- 
ing may  well  be  imagined.  But  apart  from  that,  we  were  very  deep- 
ly impressed  by  the  men  themselves.  Few  men  have  made  a  deeper 
impression  on  me  than  these  simple  missionaries.  They  were  stand- 
ing, transparent  types  of  all  that  is  best  in  man;  there  was  around 
them  an  atmosphere^  of  pure,  genuine  goodness  which  made  itself 
felt  at  once.  We  recognized  immediately  that  we  were  not  only  with 
good  men,  but  with  real  men.  What  they  possessed  was  no  weak 
sentimentality  or  flashy  enthusiasm,  but  solid  human  worth.  Far 
away  from  their  friends,  from  all  civilization,  they  live  and  work 
and  die ;  they  have  died,  two  out  of  the  three  we  met  in  these  parts, 
since  we  left. 

"Their  strong  yet  gentle  and  simple  natures,  developed  by  the 


196  CHRISTENDOM. 

hardships  of  their  surroundings  and  the  loftiness  of  their  ideals,  and 
untainted  by  the  contact  with  worldly  praise  and  glamour,  impressed 
itself  on  us  at  once  and,  as  we  saw  evidenced  in  the  people  around, 
had  affected  the  Chinese  likewise. 

'Great   deeds   cannot  die. 
They  with  the  sun  and  moon  renew  their  light ; 
Forever  blessing  those  that  look  on  them.' 

"Others  may  bring  discredit  on  the  missionary  cause  and  produce 
the  feeling  of  hostility  to  it  which  undoubtedly  exists,  but  these  are 
the  men  who  are  a  true  light  in  the  world  and  who  will  spread  the 
essence  of  Christianity — the  doing  of  good  to  others — abroad. 

*'This  remote  mission  station,  established  here  where  no  other 
Europeans  had  ever  penetrated,  was  a  source  of  the  greatest  interest 
to  us  and  fulfilled  our  highest  ideal  of  such  a  station.  There  was 
here  no  elaborate,  costly  house,  no  air  of  luxury  such  as  may  be  seen 
in  many  missionary  establishments  elsewhere,  but  everything  was  of 
the  most  rigorous  simplicity.  There  was  merely  a  plain  little  house, 
almost  bare  inside  and  with  stiff,  simple  furniture.  Under  such 
hard  conditions  and  with  such  plain  surroundings,  and  shut  off 
forever  from  intercourse  with  the  civilized  world,  it  might  be  sup- 
posed that  these  missionaries  were  dull,  stern,  perhaps  morbid,  men. 
But  they  were  precisely  the  contrary.  They  had  a  fund  of  simple 
joviality  and  were  hearty  and  full  of  spirits."  ("The  Heart  of  a 
Continent.  A  Narrative  of  Travels  in  Manchuria.''  By  Captain 
Younghusband.    London,  1896.) 

This  story  of  the  Catholic  missionary's  effort  will  not  be  complete 
without  a  sketch  of  the  organization  which  supplies  to  a  large  ex- 
tent the  sinews  of  war.  In  1823  a  young  woman  of  Lyons  conceived 
the  idea  of  collecting  the  pennies  from  the  poor,  through  the  chil- 
dren, for  the  support  of  missionaries  in  heathen  lands.  The  work 
rapidly  spread  throughout  the  churches  in  France  and  ultimately  it 
was  organized  for  a  world-wide  effort.  From  small  offerings  at  first 
the  work  grew  until  in  1891  the  Central  Direction  of  the  Society  of 
the  Propagation  of  the  Faith  was  able  to  report  that  the  sum  of 
$58,994,925  was  contributed  to  this  work  since  its  inception  in  1822. 
In  the  year  1899  there  was  distributed  throughout  the  missionary 
dioceses  by  this  same  organization  $1,362,854.74.  It  also  publishes 
an  item  of  statistics  which  is  very  valuable  in  this  connection: 

"At  the  beginning  of  the  century,  before  the  founding  of  the  So- 
ciety of  the  Propagation  of  the  Faith,  of  Lyons,  the  Propaganda 


ROMAN    CATHOLIC    MISSIONS.  ^  197 

numbered  scarcely  five  million  Catholics  under  its  jurisdiction.  For 
the  present  century  the  number  has  risen  to  about  twenty-six  mil- 
lions. Generations  of  missionaries  have  spent  their  lives  in  bringing 
about  this  happy  result.  In  1896  alone  112,318  converts  were  offi- 
cially reported." 

So  much  for  the  financial  side.  As  a  type  of  the  twenty  societies 
associated  with  the  Propaganda  Fide  that  supply  the  men  for  the 
arduous  labors  of  the  Apostolate,  I  select  the  SocUte  defi  Missions 
Etrangeres  of  Paris.  A  comparison  of  its  work  in  1823  with  the 
results  achieved  in  1899  is  made  in  the  following  table: 

1822.  1899. 

Number  of  missionaries 33  881 

Number  of  students  preparing  for  its  work 250  1,760 

Number  of  chapels  and  churches 10  3,575 

Number  of  conversions  from  heresy 3  464 

Number  of  adults  baptized 800  72,700 

Number  of  catechumens  receiving  instruction.  .  .  .  100  60,000 

Number  of  dying  children  baptized 4,500  175,000 

Number  of  native  priests  in  Society 120  500 

These  figures  speak  for  themselves.  I  will  only  add  that  during 
the  past  half  century  this  Society  alone  has  sent  out  2,000  mission- 
aries to  enlighten  the  heathen  and  it  counts  86  on  its  roll  of  mar- 
tyrs. 

For  those  who  desire  to  investigate  the  statistics  of  Catholic  mis- 
sions I  submit  the  following  tables,  which  have  been  taken  from  the 
reports  of  the  Propaganda  of  1898  and  as  far  as  I  know  are  now  for 
the  first  time  published  in  English. 

In  conclusion,  after  mature  consideration  of  the  figures,  it  is 
evident  that  the  old  church  which  has  been  the  exponent  of  Chris- 
tianity for  the  last  nineteen  centuries  has  not  passed  into  the  bar- 
renness of  old  age,  but  she  possesses  rather  the  virility  of  3'-outh. 
Though  she  stands  to-day  the  most  ancient  institution  in  the  world, 
going  back  to  the  days  of  classic  civilization,  still  she  is  the  most 
vigorous. 

In  the  religious  world  we  see  not  a  few  crumbling  creeds  and  dis- 
integrating systems.  Eeligious  bodies  are  drifting  away  from  the 
old  moorings.  What  was  taught  a  generation  ago  is  repudiated  now. 
In  the  face  of  all  this  there  is  no  more  fascinating  sight  than  to  see 
the  grand  old  church  steadily  pursuing  her  course  unmindful  of  the 


198  CHRISTENDOM. 

attacks  of  enemies  and  undeterred  by  the  antagonisms  of  the  world. 
She  serenely  moves  on,  bearing  the  Gospel  to  all  who  sit  in  darkness 
and  the  shadow  of  death.  The  words  of  Gladstone  have  the  deepest 
meaning:  "Since  the  first  three  hundred  years  of  persecution,  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church  has  marched  at  the  head  of  human  civiliza- 
tion, and  has  driven,  harnessed  to  her  chariot,  as  the  horses  of  a 
triumphal  car,  the  chief  intellectual  forces  of  the  world ;  its  genius, 
the  genius  of  the  world;  its  greatness,  glory,  grandeur  and  majesty 
have  been  almost,  though  not  absolutely,  all  that  in  these  respects 
the  world  has  had  to  boast  of." 

Official  statistics  from  "Missiones  Catholieae  cura  S.  Congrega- 
tionis  de  Propaganda  Fide  descriptte  Anno  1898" : 

Churches 
Missions.  Catholics.       Priests.  &  Chapels. 

England   1,362,489  2,674  1,492 

Scotland    373,500  432  299 

Ireland 3,547,079  3,445  2,707 

Norway "j 

Sweden I        9,750  74  57 

Denmark J 

Holland 1,854,340  3,168  1,826 

Balkan  Peninsula 686,210  890  684 

Greece 34,710  109  189 

Turkey 129,680  310  297 

Persia 7,650  11  4 

Arabia 1,500  11  6 

India  (Eng.) 1,478,325  1,080  3,995 

Chino-Indian  Peninsula 837,680  823  3,379 

Malay,Borneo,  Java  and  Siam....        57,890  89  113 

Chinese  Empire 532,448  1,168  3,930 

Corea  and  Japan 84,410  ,    772  247 

Africa 458,170  1,015  1,649 

British  America 2,187,480  2,766  2,716 

United  States 9,479,250         10,049         10,922 

West  Indies 339,200  195  257 

Patagonia 99,500  70  89 

Australia 704,170  736  1,280 

Polynesia    196,850  348  684 


24,352,232         30,135         36,822 


EOMAN    CATHOLIC    MISSIONS.  199 

The  American  Statistical  Association  publishes  the  following  re- 
turns as  to  the  number  of  Christians  (excluding  Greeks  and  Kopts) 
in  the  various  MISSIONARY  COUNTRIES  in  1893  : 

Catholics.           Protestants.  Total. 

India *1,199,000              534,000  l,733,00a 

China    1,116,000                88,000  1,204,000 

Siberia    70,000                20,000  90,000 

Japan    30,000                   30,000 

Syria,   etc 663,000                20,000  683,000 

Total  in  Asia 3,078,000              602,000  3,740,000 

Total  in  Africa 2,660,000           1,740,000  4,400,000 

Manila,  Java,  etc 5,720,000              220,000  5,940,000 

Totals   1 1,458,000           2,622,000  14,080,000 

*  The  English   Catholic  Register   for  1898  gives  the  number  as  1,870,000. 


GREEK  CHRISTIANITY. 


Peof.  Andrew  C.  Zenos^  D.D., 


[Replying  to  the  encyclical  of  Pope  Leo  XIII  addressed  to  the  Greek 
Church,  July,  1894,  on  the  subject  of  reunion,  the  Greek  ecclesiastics,  after 
specifying  the  "dangerous  inovations"  which  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  has 
introduced,  say : 

Overlooking,  however,  many  material  and  weighty  differences  in  the  beliefs 
of  the  two  churches — differences  created,  as  we  have  seen,  in  the  West — His 
Beatitude  [Pope  Leo  XIII]  represents  in  his  encyclical  that  the  question  of 
the  supremacy  of  the  Roman  bishops  is  the  decisive  and  only  cause  of  dis- 
cord, and  refers  us  to  original  sources  wherein  to  seek  what  it  was  that  our 
forefathers  thought  thereof,  and  what  was  the  tradition  of  early  Christianity. 
But  when  we  do  refer  back  to  the  Fathers  and  to  the  ecumenical  councils  of 
the  first  nine  centuries,  we  find  that  the  Bishop  of  Rome  was  never  regarded 
as  the  supreme  authority  or  as  the  infallible  head  of  the  church  ;  but  that 
every  bishop  was  the  head  and  president  of  his  own  particular  church,  subject 
only  to  synodical  decrees  and  to  the  decisions  of  the  church  at  large,  which 
alone  is  infallible.  From  this  rule  the  Bishop  of  Rome  was  in  no  wise  ex- 
empted, as  ecclesiastical  history  shows,  since  the  sole  eternal  Chief  and  the 
immortal  Head  of  the  Church  is  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Peter,  whom  the 
Papists — basing  themselves  on  the  apocryphal  pseudo-Clementines  of  the  sec- 
ond century — have  purposely  imagined  to.  have  been  the  founder  of  the 
Roman  Church  and  its  first  bishop,  Peter  is  seen  in  Scripture  discussing  as 
an  equal  with  equals  in  the  Apostolic  Council  of  Jerusalem.  On  another 
occasion  he  is  bitterly  rebuked  by  Paul,  as  it  is  manifest  in  the  Epistle  to  the 
Galatians.  The  very  Gospel  text  to  which  the  Roman  pontiff  refers,  "Thou 
art  Peter,  and  upon  this  rock  I  will  build  my  church,"  was  interpreted  during 
the  early  ages  of  the  church,  both  by  tradition  and  by  all  the  divine  and 
sacred  fathers  without  exception — as  the  Papists  themselves  well  know — in 
an  entirely  different  manner,  and  in  an  orthodox  spirit ;  the  immovable  funda- 
mental rock  on  which  the  Lord  built  His  church,  and  against  which  the 
gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail,  was  understood  metaphorically  to  signify  the 
right  confession  which  Peter  had  made  concerning  the  Lord :  "Thou  art 
Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living  God."  On  this  confession  of  faith  rests  firmly 
the  saving  message  of  the  Gospel  preached  by  all  the  apostles  and  their 
successors.  Therefore  the  heaven-soaring  apostle  Paul  refers  manifestly  to 
this  Divine  sentence  when  he  declares,  bj'  Divine  inspiration :  "According  to 
the  grace  of  God  which  is  given  unto  me,  as  a  wise  master-builder,  I  have  laid 
the  foundation,  and  another  buildeth  thereon.  But  let  every  man  take  heed 
how  he  buildeth  thereupon.  For  other  foundation  can  no  man  lay  than  that 
is  laid,  which  is  Jesus  Christ." — "Reply  of  the  Holy  Cath.  and  Apo.  Orth. 
Ch.  of  the  East  to  the  Ency.  of  Pope  Leo  XIII  on  Reunion,"  page  7. — Ed.] 

200 


GREEK    CHRISTIANITY.  201 

The  name  Greek  Christianity  should  be  employed  in  strictest  ac- 
curacy to  designate  the  type  of  thought  and  life  developed  under  the 
influence  of  the  Gospel,  among  those  peoples  which  had  been  pre- 
viously molded  by  Greek  civilization.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  how- 
ever, the  expression  is  used  as  the  equivalent  of  the  Greek  Church, 
whose  full  name  is  The  Holy  Eastern  Orthodox  Catholic  Apostolic 
Church.  This  church  includes  the  Greeks  of  Turkey,  under  the 
Patriarchs  of  Constantinople,  Antioeh,  Jerusalem  and  Alexandria, 
the  National  Church  of  the  Kingdom  of  Greece,  vmder  the  National 
Synod  of  Greece,  and  the  National  Church  of  the  Russian  Empire, 
under  a  Holy  Synod  of  its  own.  It  embraces  a  population  of  100,- 
000,000  souls.  The  Christian  Church  finally  divided  into  the  East- 
ern and  the  Western,  1054  A.  D.,  by  Pope  Leo  IX,  of  Rome,  and 
the  Patriarch  Cerularius,  of  Constantinople,  solemnly  excommuni- 
cated each  other. 

Of  all  the  forms  of  Christianity,  the  Greek  claims  to  be  the  most 
ancient  and  primitive.  This  claim  is  made,  it  is  true,  by  the  Ro- 
man also ;  but  there  is  a  difference.  In  order  to  account  for  the  ap- 
parent difference  of  their  type  from  the  Apostolic  as  pictured  in  the 
New  Testament  writings,  the  representatives  of  the  Roman  Church 
have  resorted  to  a  theory  of  development.*  The  adherents  of  the 
Greek  type,  on  the  other  hand,  have  always  stood  by  the  theory  that 
the  whole  of  Christian  truth  and  law  of  practice  was  once  for  all 
delivered  in  its  final  form  to  the  Apostles,  and  by  them  in  part  com- 
mitted to  writing,  and  in  part  redelivered  to  their  successorsf.  Thus 
while  Roman  Christianity  is  based  on  the  three-fold  ground  of  Scrip- 
ture, tradition  and  development,  under  the  care  of  a  living  and 


♦We  accept  here  as  correct  the  theory  of  Romanism  expounded  by  Cardinal 
Newman  in  his  essay  on  "Development"  (published  1845),  according  to 
which  the  original  teaching  oE  Christ  and  the  Apostles  only  implicitly  con- 
tained the  full  doctrinal  development  of  tlie  later  ages.  The  opposite  view, 
set  forth  in  J''ather  Clark's  "Theory  of  Catholicism,"  "that  the- subsequent 
development  of  dogma  was  contained  in  the  deposit  which  Christ  handed 
to  His  Apostles;  that  Christ  Himself  instructed  Peter  in  the  doctrine  of  the 
Immaculate  Conception  of  the  Virgin,  the  Infallibility  of  the  Pope,  the  doc- 
trine of  transubstantiation  and  the  system  of  penance,"  we  regard  as  more 
nearly  a  correct  exposition  of  the  standpoint  of  Greek  Catholicism. 

tAcconling  to  the  "Orthodox  Confession  of  the  Eastern  Church."  put  forth 
in  164:5,  the  standards  of  the  Greek  Catholic  Church  are  "partly  the  Holy 
Scriptures  and  partly  the  ecclesiastical  traditions  and  teachings  of  the  synods 
and  of  the  Holy  Fathers"  (Quest.  4).  In  the  Confession  of  Dositheus 
adopted  by  the  Synod  of  Jerusalem,  1672,  substantially  the  same  view  is 
put  forth,  but  with  less  clearness  {Deer.  2).  The  church  as  a  whole  seems 
to  be  regarded  as  the  interpreter  of  the  truth  given  in  the  Scriptures,  rather 
than  as  an  original  source  of  truth. 


202  CHRISTENDOM. 

infallible  church,  Greek  Christianity  is  built  on  the  two-fold  founda- 
tion of  Scripture  and  tradition,  infallibly  preserved  and  interpreted 
by  the  living  church.  The  task,  however,  of  formulating  for  pres- 
ervation and  interpretation  was  a  simple  one ;  and  according  to  the 
adherents  of  the  Greek  type,  it  was  fully  and  finally  accomplished 
during  the  ancient  period.  The  standards  were,  in  fact,  fixed  dur- 
ing the  first  eight  centuries  of  the  Christian  era  by  the  first  seven 
ecumenical  councils,  the  only  ones  recognized  as  ecumenical.  Among 
these,  it  includes  the  so-called  Quinisext,  held  in  Constantinople  in 
892 — i.  e.,  during  the  interval  between  the  sixth  and  seventh  centu- 
ries. Naturally,  the  Council  of  Nicsea,  as  the  first  in  order  of  time, 
and  as  dealing  with  the  question  of  all  questions,  that  of  the  mode  of 
the  Divine  subsistence,  stands  out  above  the  others  in  importance; 
and  its  creed  and  decisions  are  esteemed  in  a  special  manner  as  valu- 
able and  authoritative. 

To  understand  and  appreciate  the  true  genius  and  character  of 
Greek  Christianity,  it  is  therefore  not  necessary  to  trace  its  history 
beyond,  at  the  most,  the  end  of  the  ninth  century.  By  its  theory 
of  the  Gospel,  it  sets  the  limit  of  its  own  growth  within  that  period. 

We  may  conveniently  group  the  distinctive  features  of  Greek 
Christianity  under  the  familiar  rubrics  of  doctrine,  polity  and  wor- 
ship. 

I.  The  first  and  most  striking  element  in  the  environment  which 
the  Gospel  encountered  as  it  touched  Greek  soil  was  a  definite 
system  of  philosophy.  The  Greek-speaking  Fathers  of  the  Church, 
who  flourished  between  the  second  and  fifth  centuries,  were  not  able 
to  resist  the  power  of  this  philosophy.  This  philosophy  at  first 
took  the  field  against  Christianity,  and  in  the  persons  of  some  of  its 
most  strenuous  representatives,  such  as  Celsus  and  Porphyry,  it  bit- 
terly fought  the  new  system.  But  from  the  very  opening  of  the 
second  century  a  movement  was  inaugurated  toward  their  concilia- 
tion, a  movement  which  began  in  the  very  bosom  of  the  Christian 
Church.  The  Christian  apologists,  who  were  for  the  most  part 
philosophers  of  the  Platonic  type,  studied  to  show  the  inner  harmony 
between  true  philosophy  and  the  Gospel.  Thus,  by  the  time  of  the 
founding  of  the  Alexandrian  School,  by  Pantaenus,  a  distinct  and 
strong  tendency  had  set  in  toward  formulating  the  truth  of  Chris- 
tianity in  the  terms  of  the  Greek  philosophy.  Alexandria  natur- 
ally furnished  a  favorable  soil  for  the  growth  of  this  tendency.  It 
had  already  witnessed  a  powerful  effort  to  harmonize  Judaism  with 


GEEEK    CHRISTIANITY.  203 

Greek  philosophy  in  the  person  of  Philo.  It  is  true  this  effort  had 
not  proved  entirely  successful.  It  had  found  no  adherents  among 
the  Jews,  at  least  of  Palestine.  But  it  had  at  least  opened  the  way 
for  the  reconciliation  of  the  newer  and  more  flexible  offshoot  of 
Judaism — Christianity — with  Platonism. 

Of  the  four  names  with  which  the  School  of  Alexandria  is  iden- 
tified, that  of  Pantsenus  represents  a  comparatively  unknown  quan- 
tity. Clement,  however,  who  succeeded  him,  was  evidently  a  man 
of  vigorous  and  well-versed  mind.  He  is  believed  to  have  been  an 
Athenian,  and  his  works  abound  in  quotations  from  the  classical 
writers  which,  though  fragmentary  in  themselves,  have  a  value  en- 
tirely independent  of  the  history  of  Christian  thought.  With  his 
antecedents  and  equipment,  it  was  natural  that  he  should  gird  him- 
self to  the  task  of  casting  the  truth  of  the  Gospel  into  the  mold 
of  philosophy.  Perhaps  it  would  be  more  accurate  to  say  that  he 
performed  this  task  without  the  consciousness  of  doing  something 
that  no  one  else  had  done  before,  or  of  taking  a  view  of  the  Gospel 
destined  to  result  in  a  great  development  of  thought.  In  any  case, 
he  began  with  the  definite  assumption  that  philosophy  was  as  direct 
a  preparation  for  the  Gospel  as  the  Old  Testament  was.  "To  the 
Jews  belonged  the  law,  and  to  the  Greeks  philosophy,  until  the 
advent;  and  after  that  came  the  universal  calling  to  be  a  peculiar 
people  of  righteousness,  through  the  teaching  which  flows  from  faith 
brought  together  by  one  Lord,  the  only  God  of  both  Greeks  and  bar- 
barians, or  rather  of  the  whole  race  of  men."  (Strom,  v.  17). 
"Philosophy  was  a  schoolmaster  to  bring  the  Hellenic  mind,  as  the 
law  was  of  the  Hebrews,  to  Christ."  (Strom.  1,  19).  In  this  view 
of  philosophy  lies  the  germ  of  Christian  theology.  If  philosophy 
may  be  used  as  a  regulative  principle  of  thought  in  the  sphere  of 
religion,  it  follows  that  through  it  the  facts  of  the  Christian  religion 
as  given  in  the  Scriptures  may  be  molded  and  interpreted  into  a 
system.  This  was  a  considerable  contribution  to  the  development 
of  a  Christian  system  of  thought. 

Clement,  however,  did  more  than  open  the  way  for  doctrinal  con- 
struction. He  used  philosophy  in  the  specific  elaboration  of  the 
Christian  view  of  God.  As  against  a  prevalent  tendency  in  the 
heathen  systems  of  his  day,  he  asserted  with  emphasis  and  ampli- 
tude the  Christian  idea  of  immanence  in  the  world,  and  in  humanity 
through  Christ.  Without  denying  the  mysterious  and  unknowable 
aspects  of  God,  or  attempting  to  reconcile  the  transcendence  involved 


204  CHRISTENDOM. 

in  it,  he  unqualifiedly  set  forth  the  truth  that  in  Christ  God  dwells 
in  the  world  and  in  man.  Thus  he  imparted  to  the  Christian  doc- 
trine of  God  its  first  though  vague  form.  He  constructed  the  bridge 
that  was  to  span  the  distance  between  the  notion  of  the  incarnation, 
as  held  in  solution  in  Christian  experience,  and  the  doctrine  of  the 
incarnation  as  formulated  in  the  creeds. 

But  to  the  Christian  conception  of  man  also,  Clement  gave  a  form 
which,  though  not  universally  accepted  by  Western  Christendom, 
served  as  the  immovable  basis  of  all  further  thinking  on  the  sub- 
ject in  the  East.  This  contribution  consists  in  the  working  out  of 
the  Biblical  idea  that  man  is  in  the  image  of  God,  which  image  is 
a  moral  and  spiritual  one.  It  is  the  ability  to  express  the  inmost 
essence  or  character  of  God.  Man's  spiritual  constitution  is  con- 
structed, so  to  speak,  after  the  Divine  type.  And  it  is  for  this  rea- 
son that  he  responds  to  the  call  of  God.  The  law  is  written  within 
his  heart.  He  is  possessed  of  the  spontaneous  power  of  working 
out  his  destiny.  He  has  freedom  of  will,  and  is  able  to  follow  out 
the  Divine  purpose,  which  is  the  lav/  of  his  being.  But  his  freedom 
is  not  that  of  a  being  independent  of  God ;  but  of  one  linked  into 
and  holding  a  vital  relation  to  God,  and  thus  retaining  the  capacity, 
through  all  the  vicissitudes  of  a  sinful  career,  of  fulfilling  his  ap- 
pointed destiny.  This  view,  so  emphatically  set  forth,  becomes  a 
constant  factor  in  the  Greek  theology  from  the  day  of  Clement  on- 
ward. The  Oriental  Church,  without  wavering  or  hesitation,  has 
incorporated  it  in  its  standards,  and  holds  it  to  the  present  day.  It 
is  the  doctrine  stoutly  advocated  and  reasoned  for  in  the  Confes- 
sion of  Dositheus  (Deci.  3)  and  in  the  Orthodox  Confession  (Quest. 
27). 

Together  with  this  anthropology^,  and  in  fact  necessarily  related 
to  it,  is  Clement's  doctrine  of  redemption  as  a  process  of  education. 
The  indwelling  God  is  the  instructor.  (Paedag  1,  9).  Sin  is  not 
minimized  in  this  scheme,  but  the  power  which  is  to  eliminate  it 
from  the  world  of  humanity  is  conceived  of  as  working  within  hu- 
man nature  itself  as  a  constant  process  rather  than  a*,  a  pure  his- 
toric fact  once  for  all.  The  work  of  Christ  in  redemption  is  not  so 
much  that  of  securing  the  reconciliation  of  God  alienated  from  man, 
or  of  man  alienated  from  God,  as  tha-t  of  informing  man  of  a  re- 
lationship with  God.  which  has  always  existed  but  was  likely  to  be- 
come ineffective  on  account  of  ignorance  and  sin. 

We  have  given  so  much  space  to  these  positions  of  Clement,  be- 


GREEK    CHRISTIANITY.  205 

cause,  on  the  fundamental  points  of  thought  regarding  God,  man 
and  redemption,  Greek  Christianity  has  never  left  the  ground  oc- 
cupied by  him.  It  would  be  a  mistake,  however,  to  suppose  that  he 
stamped  his  impress  upon  that  type  in  every  particular.  First  of 
all,  his  system  is  not  fuU  and  well  rounded.  His  influence,  vast 
as  it  must  have  been,  did  not  extend  into  many  regions  of  religious 
thought.  His  attitude  toward  the  sources  and  standards  is  essen- 
tially different  from  that  of  the  leaders  of  Greek  Christianity  who 
followed  him.  So  is  his  view  of  the  church  and  of  eschatological 
questions. 

But  what  Clement  left  imperfect  was  measurably  completed  by 
Origen.  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  say  that  Origen  was  the  first 
thinker  who  took  a  universal  and  comprehensive  view  of  the  whole 
sphere  of  Christian  thought,  and  proposed  to  himself  the  task  of  a 
complete,  systematic  theology.  Building  on  the  foundations  laid 
down  by  Clement,  he  worked  out  a  doctrine  of  Scripture  without  de- 
parting from  the  philosophical  basis  of  his  predecessor.  He  carried 
the  principle  of  philosophic  construction  so  thoroughly  into  the 
realm  of  Christian  doctrine  that  he  conceived  it  possible  to  build 
a  cosmology  out  of  the  Gospel.  He  may  fairly  be  called  the  father 
of  systematic  theology.  He  did  not  claim  to  have  solved  all  the 
problems  of  the  Universe,  but  he  swept  the  horizon  in  his  universal 
gaze  for  the  truth,  and  harmonized  what  he  found  into  a  system. 
As  was  natural  in  a  first  effort  in  this  direction,  his  system  failed 
to  satisfy  all  the  varying  types  of  Christian  thinkers  who  came  after 
him.  But  his  influence  was  incalculable.  His  so-called  heresies 
did  not  deter  men  from  employing  his  methods  and  accepting  most 
of  his  conclusions.  In  the  West,  it  is  true,  he  was  unappreciated, 
one  might  say  almost  altogether  ignored;  but  in  Alexandria,  which 
became  the  centre  of  ferment  in  thought  during  the  Arian  and  Chris- 
tological  controversies  of  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries,  his  prin- 
ciples were  a  potent  influence.  The  theology  of  the  Ghreek  Church 
followed  in  the  main  the  lines  laid  down  by  him.  Leaving  out  the 
objectionable  elements  in  his  system,  the  great  councils  of  the  church 
elaborated  and  formulated  his  thoughts  into  canons  and  creeds. 

This  process  of  crystallization  was  naturally  fomented  and  even 
directed  by  great  minds  like  that  of  Athanasius,  the  three  Cappa- 
docians  (Gregory  of  Nazianzus,  Gregory  of  Nyssa,  and  Basil  of 
Caesarea),  and  John  of  Damascus  ("the  last  of  the  Greek  Fathers"). 
The  first  of  these  occupied  a  special  position  of  the  guardian  and 


206  CHRISTENDOM. 

preserver  of  the  Christian  notion  of  the  tri-personality  of  God.  In 
the  well-known  controversy  with  Arius  and  the  Arians,  he  laid  down 
the  lines  beyond  which  the  Christian  idea  of  God  could  not  be  car- 
ried without  danger  of  being  lost  in  heathen  polytheism.  But  he 
never  swerved  from  the  philosophical  basis  of  treatment  employed 
by  the  first  of  the  Greek  theologians.  And  when  closely  considered, 
his  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  as  distinguished  from  that  of  Augustine, 
bears  the  marks  of  a  freer,  less  mechanical,  and  more  rational — i.  e., 
philosophical — treatment. 

The  same  may  be  said,  with  somewhat  less  emphasis,  of  the  the- 
ology of  the  three  great  Cappadocians,  who  closely  followed  Athan- 
asius.  They  centre  and  move  within  the  sphere  of  philosophy  as 
opened  for  them  by  their  Alexandrian  predecessors.  The  Trinity, 
as  defined  in  the  Creed  of  Nicpea,  occupied  their  minds  almost  to  the 
exclusion  of  every  other  doctrinal  topic.  And  it  is  under  their  in- 
fluence, and  as  a  result  of  their  discussions,  that  the  doctrine  received 
its  final  touches  and  passed  into  the  amplified  and  perfected  form 
given  it  in  the  second  ecumenical  council.  Even  to  sketch  in  out- 
line their  work  would  be  not  to  show  the  distinctive  features  of  the 
Greek  theology,  but  to  trace  the  history  of  the  common  orthodoxy 
of  Chri.?tendom.  It  is  enough  to  notice  that  in  them  all,  as  in  the 
last  great  theologian  of  the  East,  John  of  Damascus,  philosophy  is 
the  vehicle  and  the  solvent  of  all  religious  thought. 

But  with  John  of  Damascus,  synchronizing  as  he  does  approxi- 
mately with  the  last  of  the  seven  ecumenical  councils,  progress  in 
the  philosophical  formulation  of  Christian  truth  reaches  its  end. 
Christian  theology  becomes  in  a  sense  a  philosophia  ultima.  And 
the  results  gained  are,  first  of  all,  a  distinct  body  of  recognized 
sources  and  standards  which  include  the  Scriptures  and  the  Catho- 
lic traditions.  The  latter  with  some  of  the  Fathers,  at  least,  is  sup- 
plementary to  Scripture,  filling  up  its  gaps  and  perfecting  its  in- 
completeness. Secondly,  a  clear  conception  of  the  church  as  the 
ark  of  safety  without  which  salvation  is  impossible.  Thirdly,  a  defi- 
nition of  the  personality  of  God  as  subsisting  in  three  hypostases 
but  one  essence.  Fourthly,  a  representation  of  the  person  of  Christ 
as  including  a  Divine  and  a  human  nature  existing  together  in  one 
person,  without  confusion,  without  change,  without  separation  and 
without  division.  Fifthly  and  finally,  a  doctrine  of  the  intermediate 
state,  which  is  opposed  on  the  one  hand  to  the  Roman  idea  of  Purga- 
tory (Cf.  Orth.  Conf.  Quest.  6G.     Conf.  Dos.  Deer.  18);  but  op- 


GREEK    CHRISTIANITY.  207 

posed  on  the  other  hand,  also,  to  the  idea  generally  current  in  Prot- 
estantism, that  the  condition  of  believers  is  finally  fixed  at  death. 
Accordingly,  prayers,  alms-givings  and  sacramental  services  are  en- 
joined upon  the  living  on  behalf  and  in  the  name  of  the  dead. 
(Orth.  Conf.  Quest.  64  and  65;  Conf.  Dosith.  18). 

How  firmly  the  very  form  of  these  doctrines  was  fixed  in  the  ulti- 
mate philosophy  may  be  seen  from  the  flint-like  resistance  offered 
by  the  Eastern  Church  to  the  addition  in  the  West  of  the  filioque 
clause  to  the  creed.  The  Nicffino-Constantinopolitan  symbol  closes 
abruptly  with  the  article:  "and  in  the  Holy  Spirit."  As  enlarged 
and  finally  adopted  in  the  East  it  reads :  "and  in  the  Holy  Spirit,  the 
Lord  and  Giver  of  Life,  who  proceeds  from  the  Father."  This  form 
of  expression  was  confirmed  in  the  council  of  Chalcedon  in  451,  and 
prevailed  both  in  the  East  and  in  the  West  until  589.  In  the  third 
provincial  Council  of  Toledo,  held  that  year,  out  of  zeal  for  the  deity 
of  Christ,  which  was  assailed  by  the  Arians  in  the  West,  and  with- 
out the  slightest  intention  to  alter  the  sense  of  the  creedal  statement, 
the  words  "and  from  the  Son"  were  added  to  the  article  above  cited. 
The  addition  passed  unchallenged,  and  was  universally  accepted 
throughout  the  West.  But  in  the  East  it  was  regarded  as  tamper- 
ing with  the  fixed  standards.  Photius,  the  Patriarch  of  Constan- 
tinople, called  attention  to  it,  and  protested  against  it  in  his  contro- 
versy with  Pope  Nicholas  I.  Ever  since,  in  all  discussions  regard- 
ing the  relations  of  the  Eastern  and  Western  churches,  the  filioque 
has  been  the  principal  ground  of  contention  in  the  sphere  of  doc- 
trine. All  efforts  to  re -unite  the  two  churches  have  stumbled  upon 
it  as  upon  an  immovable  rock.  It  has  often  been  said  that  the  doc- 
trinal difference  between  the  Greek  and  Roman  Catholic  churches 
is  only  of  secondary  importance;  that  the  political  rupture  between 
the  Oriental  and  Occidental  branches  of  the  old  Roman  Empire  was 
the  chief  and  primary  cause  of  the  division.  But  the  tenacity  with 
which  both  sides  to  the  controversy  hold  to  their  views  would  indi- 
cate something  more  than  a  political  line  of  division.  The  convic- 
tion had  evidently  been  deepened  and  fixed  that  the  conceptions  of 
truth  held  under  the  name  of  Christianity  were  capable  of  only  one 
formulation,  and  once  reached  that  must  abide  unalterable. 

11.  A  second  main  feature  of  Greek  Christianity  is  its  oligarchical 
polity,  as  distinguished  from  the  monarchical  polity  of  Roman  Cath- 
olicism and  the  predominantly  democratic  polity  of  Protestantism. 
It  may  be  safely  asserted  that  historical  scholarship  has  put  it  be- 


208  CHRISTENDOM. 

yond  question  that  all  the  forms  of  church  polity  under  which  Chris- 
tianity is  organized  at  the  present  day  are  developments  of  certain 
tendencies  or  principles  given  in  the  New  Testament.  The  polity 
of  Greek  Christianity  is  not  an  exception  to  this  generalization.  In 
the  New  Testament  the  leaders,  and  if  we  may  use  the  term  in  an 
accommodated  sense,  the  officers  of  the  church  are  presbyters  or 
elders.  These  presently  become,  still  within  the  New  Testament 
period,  pastors  or  bishops.  Later  the  bishop  assumes  the  place  of 
president  over  a  circle  of  elders  and  bishops  of  less  important 
churches,  and  thus  there  arises  the  episcopate  of  the  hierarchical 
type;  still  later  the  metropolitan  is  singled  out  and  placed  above  the 
diocesan  bishop ;  then  the  patriarch  appears  above  the  metropolitan. 
And  all  along  the  church  is  represented  in  its  entirety  in  councils, 
synods  or  convocations.  Greek  Catholicism  stops  with  this  stage  of 
development  in  polity.  Eomanism  takes  one  step  further  in  estab- 
lishing first,  one  patriarch  above  the  others  as  the  first  among 
equals,  and  second  in  ascribing  to  the  one  thus  singled  out  (the 
Bishop  of  Eome)  absolute  supremacy  and  infallibility.  Greek  Cath- 
olicism is  organized  upon  the  basis  of  a  regular  hierarchical  system 
of  patriarchs,  metropolitans,  bishops  and  presbyters  and  lower  clergy, 
all  supervised  by  national  or  provincial  synods.  It  has  never  gone 
the  length  of  recognizing  one  supreme  head  of  the  church  upon 
earth  (Cf.  Orth.  Conf.  Quest.  85;  Co7if.  Dosith.  Deer.  10).  On  the 
contrary  from  the  earliest  days  it  has  strenuously  resisted  the  claim 
of  the  Pope  to  supremacy,  and  consistently  held  the  ground  that 
such  claim  was  contrary  to  the  Scriptures  and  the  traditions  of  the 
church. 

Furthermore,  having  thus  planted  itself  upon  the  ground  of  oppo- 
sition to  the  monarchical  system,  it  has  also  declined  to  put  the  au- 
thority of  the  church  over  that  of  the  state.  On  the  other  hand, 
it  does  not  believe  in  the  separation  of  church  from  state,  but  adheres 
to  the  standpoint  reached  in  the  adoption  of  the  church  as  a  branch 
of  the  state  by  the  Emperor  Constantine;  and  thus  it  is  practically 
upon  an  Erastian  basis.  It  subordinates  the  government  of  the 
church  to  that  of  the  civil  ruler.  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  say  that 
this  feature  of  it,  like  those  already  named,  represents  a  half-way 
stage  of  development.  It  is  beyond  the  primitive  and  simple  atti- 
tude of  the  New  Testament,  in  which  the  church  is  a  community 
of  itself  and  by  itself  within  the  secular  world,  having  no  connec- 
tion whatever  with  civil  government ;  but  it  is  not  advanced  to  the 


GREEK    CHRISTIANITY.  209 

position  of  the  eleventh  century  Western  Church,  in  which  the 
Church  of  Jesus  Christ,  as  a  spiritual  and  eternal  organization,  is 
above  all  secular  governments,  and  has  a  right  to  control  and  direct 
them.  But  on  the  church  as  a  spiritual  body  the  Greek  doctrine  is 
neither  uncertain  nor  rudimentary.  It  is  explicitly  declared  to  be 
an  infallible  body,  to  which  the  light  of  absolute  truth  is  forever 
and  inalienably  entrusted  from  above  {Conf.  Orth.  Quest.  96;  Conf. 
Dosith.  Deer.  2). 

III.  The  third  general  distinctive  feature  of  Greek  Christianity 
is  its  form  of  worship.  Historically  it  has  imported  two  essential 
features  to  the  worship  of  the  New  Testament.  One  of  these  it  takes 
from  the  Old  Testament,  and  the  other  from  paganism.  The  first 
is  the  setting  of  the  sacrificial  idea  in  the  central  place  in  worship. 
This,  of  course,  it  does  in  common  with  Roman  Catholicism.  Both 
look  upon  the  Lord's  Supper  as  embodying  the  chief  and  central 
act  of  worship  in  the  Christian  Church;  and  both  view  the  Lord's 
Supper  as  a  sacrifice  requiring  a  priesthood  for  its  proper  adminis- 
tration; both  regard  the  sacrifice  as  a  sacrifice  of  Christ's  real  body 
and  blood  by  way  of  transubstantiation ;  and  both  finally  consider 
all  other  parts  of  worship  accessory  to  this  sacrifice.  Yet  in  details 
even  here  the  position  of  Roman  Catholicism  is  further  advanced 
than  that  of  Greek  Christianity.  First,  Greek  Christianity  insists 
on  a  more  primitive  way  of  offering  the  sacrifice,  in  that  it  calls  for 
communion  in  both  kinds.  The  communicant  is,  according  to  its 
doctrine,  entitled  and  enjoined  to  participate  both  of  the  body  and  of 
the  blood  of  the  sacrifice.  Roman  Catholicism  has  come  to  limit 
the  laity  to  the  participation  of  the  body  alone.  Secondly,  the  Greek 
Church  insists  on  the  use  of  leavened  bread  in  the  ordinance  (Cf. 
Orth.  Conf.  Quest.  107)  ;  Latin  Christianity,  on  the  other  hand,  has 
since  the  tenth  century  used  unleavened  bread  ( Cf .  Bingham,  Orig. 
Eccles.  XV,  ii,  5).  But  apart  from  these  details,  which  show  simply 
a  fixity  in  custom  in  the  Greek  Church  which  was  not  reached  until 
later  in  the  Roman,  the  basis  of  doctrine  on  the  nature  of  the  sac- 
raments as  well  as  on  their  number  is  identical  in  both  churches. 
Both  of  the  churches  proceed  upon  the  assumption  that  the  Old 
Testament  idea  of  sacrifice  is  carried  into  and  adopted  by  the  New. 

The  element  which  Greek  Christianity  imported  into  its  worship 
from  paganism  is  the  veneration  of  saints  and  images.  We  speak 
of  these  two  subjects  as  one,  because  the  latter  is  simply  the  sequel 
of  the  former.     The  worship  of  saints  was  not  strenuously  objected 


210  CHRISTENDOM. 

to  in  the  ancient  church.  It  was  so  natural  to  yield  to  the  instinct 
of  honoring  the  departed ;  and  there  was  so  much  stimulus  and  guid- 
ance in  the  examples  of  men  respected  and  honored  that  a  protest 
was  not  to  be  expected  to  anniversaries  and  celebrations  having  this 
object  in  view.  But  such  celebrations  soon  led,  especially  in  the 
popular  conception,  to  the  idealization  of  those  honored,  and  tlirough 
stages  which  it  is  unnecessary  to  trace,  saint  worship  arose  as  a 
counterpart  of  the  worship  of  heroes  and  demigods  among  the  heath- 
en peoples  of  antiquity.  It  was  inevitable  that  in  the  quasi-Pan- 
theon  thus  constituted  the  place  of  prime  importance  should  be 
given  to  the  Virgin  Mary. 

The  introduction  of  images  was  not  as  easy.  The  second  com- 
mandment of  the  Decalogue  appeared  to  positively  exclude  the  use 
of  sculptures  and  paintings,  even  as  means  of  worshiping  the  true 
God,  lest  they  should  become  objects  of  worship  in  and  for  them- 
selves. Yet  representations  of  the  Virgin,  of  the  saints,  and  of  the 
angels  seemed  to  have  been  quite  early  introduced  into  the  churches 
both  of  the  East  and  of  the  West.  When  this  practice  reached  con- 
siderable proportions,  a  controversy  arose  which  proved  to  be  one 
of  the  bitterest  in  the  history  of  the  church.  For  over  one  hundred 
years  the  question  whether  images  should  or  should  not  be  used  in 
worship  was  not  only  discussed  by  theologians  and  church  digni- 
taries in  vigorous  rhetorical  sentences,  but  also  fought  over  by  em- 
perors and  generals  upon  the  battle  field.  The  issue  was  the  com- 
plete triumph  of  image  worship.  And  in  the  celebration  of  All 
Saints'  Day  the  church  to  the  present  day  commemorates  the  per- 
manent establishment  of  this  feature  of  its  cultus.  Here  once  more 
the  difference  between  Eastern  Catholicism  and  Western  must  be 
noted.  Romanism,  developing  with  rigid  consistency  the  principle 
of  the  use  of  images,  allows  all  forms  of  art  as  permissible  means 
of  worship.  Greek  Catholicism,  looking  back  on  the  second  com- 
mandment, and  aiming  to  reconcile  her  practice  with  the  apparent 
prohibition  of  artistic  representations  of  God  and  divine  beings,  ex- 
cludes "graven"  images — i.  e.,  sculptures  and  carved  works  of  all 
kinds — from  the  churches,  but  allows  sketched  or  painted  tmages. 

In  the  main,  then,  in  the  doctrinal  sphere  the  characteristic  of 
Greek  Christianity  is  the  early  closing  of  questions  for  discussion 
which  in  the  West  were  held  open  much  longer;  the  acceptance  of 
certain  conclusions  as  final  which  to  the  Western  mind  represent 
only  intermediate  stages  of  development  in  the  erection  of  a  fixed 


GREEK    CHRISTIANITY. 


211 


and  ultimate  orthodoxy  upon  a  philosophical  basis.  In  the  sphere 
of  church  government,  the  characteristic  is  the  formation  of  a  fixed 
and  unbending  hierarchical  sj^stem  of  the  oligarchical  type.  In  the 
sphere  of  worship  it  is  the  development  of  a  fixed  cultus  bringing 
together  Old  Testament,  Judaic  elements,  and  purely  natural  and 
pagan  forms,  and  fusing  them  into  an  elaborate  ritual.  In  one 
word,  in  all  the  spheres  it  is  the  cessation  and  exclusion  of  progress. 


PROTESTANT  CHRISTIANITY* 


Rev.  Wm.  D.  Grant,  Ph.D., 

NEW   YORK. 

[Rome  alone  has  presented  her  theologj'  to  the  world  in  a  thoroughly  in- 
stitutional form.  What  Protestants  believe,  Rome  embodies  in  a  visible 
organism.  While  they  derive  the  life  of  the  church  from  their  faith,  Rome 
derives  her  faith  from  the  life  of  the  church.  Romanism  was  a  vast  organi- 
zation almost  before  it  was  a  distinct  faith.  Rome  did  not  so  much  incarnate 
Ler  dogmas  in  her  ritual  as  distill  her  dogmas  out  of  her  ritual. 

Contemplating  her  conquests,  she  did  not  hesitate  to  afBrm  that  God  was 
in  her  institutions ;  that  He  was  acting  through  her  agency  ;  that  He  was 
really  placing  His  divine  influence  at  her  disposal.  With  her,  faith  is  nour- 
ished from  the  divine  institution,  not  the  divine  institution  from  faith. 
Every  rite  which  other  Christian  sects  regard  as  suggesting  and  shadowing 
forth  the  spiritual  life  of  faith,  Rome  regards  as  itself  the  shrine  of  divine 
power.  The  Roman  theology  claims  for  the  entire  ritual  of  the  church  that 
it  is  one  vast  transubstantiation.  She  believes  that  the  church's  ministrations 
impart  more  grace  to  her  ministers  than  her  ministers  can  impart  to  their 
ministrations.  Ood's  power  is  held  to  be  in  the  church's  actions,  and  from 
that  centre  it  flows  out  to  the  whole  church. 

It  was  characteristic  that  the  Roman  Christian  should  look  rather  for  a 
divine  administration  than  for  vivid,  conscious  communion  with  the  spirit 
of  God.  Hence  a  sacramental  system  was  of  the  essence  of  their  religion. 
They  did  not  so  much  seek  to  be  spirit  to  spirit  with  God  as  to  adore  Him 
in  His  acts.  In  this  respect  the  Catholic  Church  has  never  changed  since 
first  the  ancient  world  began  to  suspect  that  the  lost  sceptre  of  the  Csesars 
had  passed  into  a  Roman  bishop's  grasp. 

Thus  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  though  beginning  in  humility,  early 
passed  into  incredulity  and  arrogance,  followed  by  a  passion  for  social  and 
political  ascendancy.  In  her  judgment,  she  became  necessary  to  God.  She 
was  willing  to  recognize  her  own  dependence,  but  most  unwilling  to  believe 
that  God  could  ever  choose  any  other  instrument.  It  was  natural  for  her  to 
believe  that  all  real  power  could  be  organized,  codified  and  reduced  to  a 
system,  and  to  claim  exclusivcness  for  her  own  acts.  After  proclaiming 
that  a  divine  influence  attended  her  ministry,  irrespective  of  moral  and 
spiritual  conditions,  she  fell  into  the  snare  of  prizing  her  own  instrumentality 
as  if  it  had  been  the  very  centre  of  that  influence,  and  so  gradually  forgot  the 
essence  of  her  former  faith.  She  now  dreams  that  she  holds  a  monopoly  of 
ecclesiastical  instrumentality.  Reliance  is  no  longer  had  on  the  person  of  the 
living  Christ,  but  in  powers  which  she  claims  have  been  exclusively  delegated 
to  her.  Thus  the  more  she  believes  in  herself  the  less  likely  is  she  to  rely  on 
her  Ix)rd.     The  vicious  principle  then  becomes  established  that   the  church 

212 


PROTESTANT    CHEISTIANITY.  313 

means  the  priesthood.  Therefore,  the  fulness  of  divine  action  is  denied  to 
any  outside  of  her  institution  and  sacraments.  Human  agency  everywhere 
appears  on  behalf  of  God. 

The  Protestant  faith  is  a  protest  not  merely  against  the  abuse  of  this 
machinery,  but  against  the  machinery  itself.  Isolate  the  mind  from  visible 
agency  and  the  Roman  Catholic  has  hardly  a  religious  life  to  live.  But  the 
religion  of  Protestantism  is,  in  its  original  nature,  separated  from  visible 
agencies ;  springing  up  in  secret  struggles,  it  is  matured  by  thought,  watered 
by  personal  devotion,  and  rooted  directly  in  God.  It  has  been  the  child  of 
Conscience,  the  pupil  of  Philosophy,  the  companion  of  Poetry,  the  parent  of 
Freedom,  and  the  discoverer  of  the  Bible. — R.  H.  Hutton,  "Essays  I,"  page 
354.— Ed.] 

*  *  * 

It  seems  to  be  universally  assumed  by  our  Roman  Catholic  breth- 
ren that,  since  they  can,  in  their  judgment,  establish  a  right  to 
claim  for  their  church  historical  priority  and  tactual  continuity; 
since  they  were  originally  entrusted  with  the  Revelation  of  Jesus 
Christ  and  the  establishment  of  His  kingdom,  therefore,  all  man- 
kind, on  pain  of  eternal  damnation,  must  unite  with  and  adhere  to 
their  communion ;  and  all  must  do  so,  let  the  moral  character  of  the 
institution  be  what  it  may.  Said  Pope  Boniface  VIII :  "We  de- 
clare, say,  define,  and  pronounce  that  every  human  being  should  be 
subject  to  the  Roman  Pontiff,  to  be  an  article  of  necessary  faith." 
The  institution  must  be  maintained  in  its  historical  integrity,  re- 
gardless of  consequences,  as  though  historical  continuity  were  the  all- 
important  matter,  and  the  possession  of  which  would  atone  for  every 
other  defect,  no  matter  how  great  or  serious.  Even  though  recre- 
ancy to  trust,  wide  departure  from  original  simplicity  in  Christian 
teaching  and  practice,  viciousness  in  administration  and  corruption 
in  morals  may  be  shown,  yet  the  institution  must  continue  to  lay 
claim  to  its  original  commission.  This  is  surely  an  application  of 
the  doctrine  of  "the  perseverance  of  the  saints"  applied  to  the  perse- 
verance of  sinners. 

It  may  not  be  a  difficult  task  for  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  to 
establish  its  claim  to  historical  priority  and  tactual  succession,  but 
let  all  Christians  remind  themselves  that  there  are  matters,  relating 
to  doctrine  and  life,  which  are  infinitely  more  important.  We  re- 
member that  the  Jews  of  Christ's  day  (John,  viii)  laid  claim  to 
special,  divine  consideration  because  they  could  say,  and  say  truth- 
fully :  "We  be  Abraham's  seed."  But  though  they  might  be  able 
to  mislead  others  by  their  high-sounding  claim  to  historical  descent 
from  such  a  distinguished  ancestor,  Jesus  Christ  clearly  sees  through 


214  CHRISTENDOM. 

their  subterfuge,  and  pierces  the  thin  disguise  of  their  specious  pre- 
tensions, and  tells  them  that  such  a  distinction,  however  true,  counts 
for  nothing  unless  they  do  the  works  of  Abraham. 

That  it  is  a  religious  institution  does  not  guarantee  exemption 
from  a  condemnation  which  would  be  the  merited  desert  of  any 
secular  organization  guilty  of  the  same  offence.  Nay,  more,  God 
Almighty  must  chastise,  if  He  does  not  utterly  reject,  an  institution, 
even  of  His  own  appointment,  which  has  manifestly  failed  in  its 
trusteeship  as  witness  to  His  grace  and  representative  of  His  right- 
eousness. Whoever  else  may.  He  cannot  afford  to  condone  or  con- 
tinue to  recognize  such  as  His  representative.  His  promise  and 
warning  are  in  such  words  as  these :  "If  ye  be  willing  and  obedient, 
ye  shall  eat  the  good  of  the  land ;  but  if  ye  refuse  and  rebel,  ye  shall 
be  devoured  with  the  sword ;  for  the  mouth  of  the  Lord  hath  spoken 
it."  (Isaiah  i,  19,  20.)  They  did  "refuse  and  rebel" ;  therefore  He 
who  saw  at  once  their  spiritual  pride  and  poverty  said  to  them : 
"Behold  your  house  is  left  unto  you  desolate" — God,  their  covenant 
God,  had  forsaken  them,  and  had  done  so  notwithstanding  He  had 
chosen  them  as  the  channel  and  custodian  of  His  own  revelation. 
"Ye  pay  tithe  of  mint,  and  anise,  and  cummin,  and  have  omitted 
the  weightier  matters  of  the  lav/,  judgment,  mercy  and  faith ;  there- 
fore, the  hingdom  of  God  shall  he  taken  from  you,  and  given  to  a 
nation  bringing  forth  the  fruits  thereof"  (Matt,  xxi,  43;  xxiii,  23). 
This  prophecy  became  history  in  the  year  70  A.  D.  Our  Lord 
teaches  this  same  principle  in  the  parables  of  the  talents  and  of  the 
vineyard.  Indeed,  the  principle  applies  to  sacred  and  secular  his- 
tory alike — to  churches  and  nations,  as  well  as  to  individuals  the 
world  over  and  for  all  time.  It  is  the  voice  of  history,  of  reason,  and 
of  God.  And  not  even  His  own  church,  when  it  has  become  de- 
generate, can  claim  immunity  or  be  allowed  to  escape.  Why  were 
the  seven  churches  of  Asia  Minor  allowed  to  perish,  think  you? 
What  is  the  significance  of  the  rise  and  rapid  advancement  of  Islam 
in  the  seventh  century?  Was  it  not  sent  with  its  drawn  sword  to 
scourge  an  idolatrous  church?  Were  not  John  Wesley  and  his  asso- 
ciates in  the  eighteenth  century  amply  justified  in  the  course  which 
they  pursued,  when  the  Anglican  Church  of  that  day  had  failed  to 
administer  its  trust  in  the  interests  of  righteousness  and  the  kingdom 
of  God?  Or  in  1843,  under  the  oppressive  power  of  an  arrogant 
church  in  Scotland,  were  not  Thomas  Chalmers  and  his  470  fellow- 
protestants  fully  justified  in  seeking  freedom  by  withdrawal?     Is 


PROTESTANT    CHRISTIANITY.  215 

there  no  moral  and  religious  significance  in  the  recent  loss  to  Spain 
of  her  American  possessions ;  and,  in  recent  times,  too,  what  about 
the  loss  of  Roman  Catholic  religious  and  political  power  and  prestige 
in  Mexico  and  Central  and  South  America?  And,  in  a  still  more 
recent  instance,  and  one  nearer  home,  the  application  of  this  prin- 
ciple may  be  clearly  seen,  viz. :  the  overthrow  of  Tammany  Hall  in 
New  York  City,  November,  1901.  Official  corruption,  fostering  of 
crime,  and  political  oppression  having  been  proven  against  the  insti- 
tution, were  not  all  those  who  united  for  its  overthrow  amply  justi- 
fied in  the  course  which  they  pursued? 

May  not  an  institution,  then,  be  called  to  account — even  though 
that  institution  claims  to  be  the  true  and  only  church  of  Jesus 
Christ — when  it  has  violated  common,  moral  decency,  has  lorded  it 
over  God's  heritage,  and  has  manifestly  proved  recreant  to  its  trust  ? 
Is  withdrawal  from  such  permissible  under  no  circumstances  what- 
ever ?  And  can  anything  be  lost  by  leaving  an  institution,  whatever 
its  claims  to  divine  sanction  and  recognition,  when  in  spirit  and 
purpose  it  has  manifestly  left  its  Lord  and  Founder  ? 

Now,  who  can  doubt  that  the  Reformation  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury was  another  application  of  this  same  principle,  even  though  the 
institution  in  this  case  was  the  Church  of  God  itself? — God's  time 
and  method  it  was  for  scourging  a  thoroughly  corrupt  church. 

It  were  a  thankless  task,  however,  to  beat  anew  the  oft-threshed 
straw  of  this  epoch  in  church  history ;  enough  to  say  a  state  of  things 
did  exist  in  the  Christian  Church — in  doctrinal  innovations,  in 
moral  laxity,  and  in  maladministration — at  the  beginning  of  the  six- 
teenth century,  which,  in  the  eyes  of  all  right-thinlving  and  un- 
prejudiced men,  not  only  amply  justified  the  course  taken  by  the 
Reformers,  but  which  made  reformation  a  moral  necessity. 

Luther  himself,  while  on  a  visit  to  Rome,  1511,  was  deeply  shocked 
at  the  profane  levity  of  the  priesthood,  while  they  were  equally  aston- 
ished at  his  solemn  credulity,  and  jeered  him  as  a  dull  German  who 
had  not  genius  enough  to  be  skeptical,  or  ciinning  enough  to  be 
hypocritical.  Rome  itself  was  full  of  mocking  hypocrisy,  defiant 
skepticism,  jeering  impiety  and  shameless  revelry.  This  is  not  to  be 
wondered  at,  since  the  reigning  Pope,  Leo  X,  himself  regarded 
Christianity  in  the  light  of  a  "profitable"  fable. 

I  may  be  told,  however,  that  this  was  Rome  as  seen  through  the 
eyes  of  prejudice  and  bitterness  of  spirit.  Not  so !  Remember,  it 
was  but  the  year  1511 — ^^six  fuU  years  before  the  appearance  of  his 


216  CHRISTENDOM. 

famous  ninety-five  theses.  Martin  Luther  had  come  to  Rome  neither 
to  spy  out  the  land  nor  to  secure  ammunition  to  bombard  the  Roman 
citadel,  but  on  a  special  mission  for  his  monastic  order;  had  come 
believing  the  Eternal  City  to  be  the  abode  of  all  the  sanctities; 
for  when  once  in  sight  of  its  walls  he  exclaimed,  "I  greet  thee,  thou 
holy  Rome !"  He  went  the  rounds,  too,  of  all  the  churches  ap- 
pointed for  pilgrims,  and  climbed,  on  his  knees,  the  holy  stairs  of 
Pontius  Pilate.  And,  wonderful  to  relate,  he  wished  his  father  and 
mother  had  been  dead,  since,  in  the  Holy  City,  he  was  afforded  such  a 
rare  opportunity  of  delivering  their  souls  from  purgatory.  Such 
was  the  spirit  and  such  the  belief  which  animated  Martin  Luther 
when  he  visited  Rome.  But  after  he  returned  home  he  said :  "Never 
would  I  have  believed  the  statement,  had  another  told  me,  of  what  I 
saw  with  my  own  eyes  and  heard  with  my  own  ears  in  the  Holy 
City."     But  we  have  witness  other  than  that  of  Martin  Luther. 

Some  3^ears  ago  the  sensational  historical  work  of  the  late  Dr. 
J.  Janssen,  entitled  "History  of  the  German  People  Since  the  Close 
of  the  Middle  Ages,"  published  in  a  half-dozen  volumes,  kept  the 
Protestant  and  the  Catholic  reading  public  of  the  Continent  on  the 
qui  vive  for  half  a  decade,  as  the  work  aimed  to  demonstrate,  on  the 
ground  of  authentic  sources  and  in  accordance  with  correct  historio- 
graphieal  principles  and  methods,  that  the  Reformation  was  the 
greatest  misfortune  that  ever  befell  Europe  and  was  really  the  source 
and  fountain-head  of  all  the  ills  of  later  generations,  politically, 
socially,  and  religiously.  A  counterpart  to  this  attempt  has  been 
undertaken  by  the  Innsbriick  Roman  Catholic  historian.  Dr.  Louis 
Pastor,  in  his  "History  of  the  Popes  Since  the  Close  of  the  Middle 
Ages."  With  indefatigable  industry  the  author  has  been  at  work 
since  1889  along  Janssen's  lines  in  method  and  manner.  In  the 
third  volume,  recently  issued,  he  comes  to  consider  the  crucial  period 
of  papacy,  the  period  of  1484  to  1513,  and  to  his  credit  it  must  be 
said  that  he  has  not,  as  did  his  predecessor,  forced  historical  truth 
into  the  Procrustean  bed  of  dogmatical  prejudgments.  In  fact,  he 
acknowledges  the  direful  condition  of  the  papacy  of  that  period  in  a 
manner  even  exceeding  that  of  such  model  Protestant  writers  as 
Ranke,  Gregorovius,  Brosch,  and  others. 

Pastor  does  not  try  to  save  what  can  not  be  saved.  He  acknowl- 
edges that  with  the  sole  exception  of  tlie  short  reign  of  Pius  III,  in 
1503,  the  highest  office  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  was  occupied 
by  men  who  represented  the  acme  of  ^Worthiness  of  the  dignity. 


PROTESTANT  MEMORIAL  CHURCH,  SPIRE-ON-THE-RHINE. 


PROTESTANT    CHRISTIAmTY.  217 

The  leading  characters,  Innocent  VIII  and  Alexander  VI,  are 
depicted  much  as  this  is  done  by  Protestant  writers.  Innocent's 
wicked  life  before  his  ascent  to  the  papal  throne  is  not  ignored,  nor 
the  fact  that  he  had  at  least  two  illegitimate  children,  and  that  for 
one  of  them,  Francheshetto  Ciob,  he  prepared  a  grand  wedding  in 
the  papal  palace  in  Eome,  the  same  son  being  the  one  who  in  a  single 
night  lost  in  gambling  14,000  ducats,  the  winner  being  Cardinal 
Riario.  Such  nepotism  and  favoritism  was  shown  that  in  1492  the 
Pope  appointed  to  the  office  of  cardinal  a  fourteen-year-old  boy, 
Giovanini  Medici,  who  afterward  became  Leo  X. 

In  Alexander's  case  the  author  adopts  the  dictum  of  Mohler,  the 
great  Catholic  theologian  of  Munich,  who  declared  that  "the  curse 
of  this  Pope  was  his  family."  The  horrible  deeds  of  his  son,  the 
infamous  Caesar  Borgia,  are  openly  discussed  in  this  volume.  In  the 
case  of  Alexander  it  is  not  denied  that  before  and  after  his  appoint- 
ment to  the  clerical  office  he  led  a  very  immoral  life.  On  the  occa- 
sion of  the  marriage  of  his  daughter  Lucretia  in  the  Vatican  carous- 
ing and  dancing  was  the  order  of  the  day,  or  rather  of  the  night. 
His  nepotism  is  soundly  condemned.  In  agreement  with  A.  de  Reu- 
munt's  Judgment,  Pastor  regards  the  reign  of  Alexander  as  "a  mis- 
fortune," which  brought  great  discredit  on  the  whole  institution  of 
papacy. 

Thus  "Rome  has  lost  her  power,"  as  Mr.  Hutton  says,  "not  so 
much  by  doctrinal  blunders  as  by  moral  and  spiritual  failure.  She 
lost  it  because  the  corruptions  of  the  church  made  her  moral  falli- 
bility patent,  and  because  the  just  moral  instincts  of  men  perceived 
at  once  that  a  church  which  had,  for  a  time  at  least,  lost  all  her  pre- 
eminence in  righteousness  over  the  world  which  she  was  leading, 
could  not  by  any  possibility  be  competent  to  interpret  infallibly 
spiritual  truth." 

But,  some  one  may  say,  though  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  in 
the  sixteenth  century  was  as  bad  as  you  have  made  it  appear;  yea, 
though  it  may  have  been  a  great  deal  worse,  by  what  right  or  author- 
ity has  any  one  to  call  her  to  account  for  her  conduct?  True,  if 
we  must  abide  by  her  deliverances,  we  have  no  right  to  question  her 
course  in  any  respect  whatever.  We  have  no  redress  from  moral 
turpitude  the  most  shameful,  or  deliverance  from  administration 
the  most  oppressive.  Should  this  statement  be  questioned,  let  us 
hear  what  Mr.  Gladstone  says :  "The  Pope  demands  for  himself  the 
right  to  determine  the  province  of  his  own  rights,  and  has  so  defined 


218  CHRISTENDOM. 

it  in  formal  documents  as  to  warrant  any  and  every  invasion  of  the 
civil  power.  Against  such  definition  of  his  own  power  there  is  no 
appeal  to  reason,  that  is,  rationalism ;  nor  to  Scripture,  that  is  her- 
esy; nor  to  history,  that  is  private  judgment." 

But  should  it  be  said  Mr.  Gladstone  speaks  as  a  Protestant,  and 
may  be  either  biased  or  misinformed,  then  let  us  hear  Cardinal 
Manning,  who  says :  "The  church  herself  is  the  divine  witness, 
teacher  and  judge  of  the  revelation  entrusted  to  her.  There  exists 
no  other.  She  is  her  own  judge  respecting  the  faithfulness  of  ad- 
ministering her  trust.  There  is  no  tribunal  to  which  appeal  from 
the  church  can  be  taken;  there  is  no  co-ordinate  witness,  teacher  or 
judge  who  can  revise  or  criticise  or  test  the  teaching  of  the  church. 
She  is  sole  and  alone  in  the  world  *  *  *  j|-  belongs  to  the 
church  alone  to  determine  the  limits  of  her  own  infallibility." 

Thus,  you  will  observe,  the  Eoman  Catholic  Church  is  as  immuta- 
ble in  her  nature  as  her  pretensions  are  arrogant — neither  modern 
science,  historical  criticism,  nor  loss  of  temporal  power  has  led  the 
Pope  to  modify  in  the  least  his  astounding  claim  to  be  sole  lord  of 
the  individual  conscience  and  arbiter  of  human  destiny.  Rome  has 
modified  neither  her  doctrine,  her  purpose,  nor  her  spirit — she  has 
frequently  changed  her  methods — since  Luther's  day  ;  nor  is  she  now 
more  amenable  to  Scripture,  reason  or  lay  suggestion  than  she  was 
then.  If  I  should  be  mistaken  in  this  respect  it  would  be  a  great 
gratification  to  learn  of  Rome's  conversion. 

Her  deliverances  at  the  Council  of  Trent  were  Rome's  answer  to 
the  Reformation,  and  the  Pope's  promulgation  of  his  infallibility  in 
1870,  on  the  loss  of  his  temporal  power,  was  his  answer  to  the  world 
that  he  would  be  supreme  at  least  in  his  own  house. 

It  was  against  this  spirit  of  consummate  arrogance,  which  was 
responsible  for  a  state  of  evil  that  had  passed  beyond  endurance, 
that  Luther  threw  the  whole  weight  of  his  majestic  personality  and 
moral  enthusiasm ;  it  was  against  this  spirit  that  the  representatives 
of  Evangelical  Christianity  in  Germany  entered  their  solemn  pro- 
test at  Spier,  April,  1529;  and  it  is  against  this  same  spirit,  im- 
perious now  as  ever,  that,  after  four  hundred  years,  nearly  150,000,- 
000  of  people  protest,  and,  with  ever-increasing  numbers  and  vehem- 
ence, shall  continue  to  protest. 

Could  the  Reformers  have  brought  the  church  round  to  their  way 
of  thinking,  respecting  the  supremacy  and  sufficiency  of  Scripture, 
respecting  the  right  of  private  judgment,  regarding  justification  by 


PEOTESTANT    CHRISTIANITY.  219 

faith  alone,  regarding  the  privilege  of  the  individual  to  treat  directly 
with  God,  they  would  have  been  glad,  no  doubt,  to  have  remained 
within  the  bosom  of  ilother  Church.  But  history  had  taught 
them  that  any  efforts  they  might  put  forth  to  secure  such  reforms 
within  the  church  itself  must  prove  a  fruitless  task.  It  was  well 
known  to  them  that  for  more  than  two  centuries  before  the  historic 
protest  was  entered,  there  were  those  who  had  sought,  by  every  fair 
means  in  their  power,  to  introduce  and  carry  through  reforms  within 
the  church,  but  everywhere  they  met  defeat,  and  not  a  few  of  them 
a  violent  death  at  the  hands  of  the  ecclesiastical  machine.  The 
principles  of  the  Reformation  had  already  been  represented  in  men 
like  Arnold  of  Brescia,  and  Savonarola,  Huss  and  Jerome,  Wiclif 
and  the  Lollards,  Tauler  and  the  Mystics;  in  the  minorities  at  the 
Reformatory  Councils  of  Pisa,  Constance  and  Basle,  and  in  the 
reform  efforts  made  by  Peter  d'Ailly  and  John  Gerson  in  the  Univer- 
sity of  Paris.  Long  before  Luther's  day,  therefore,  there  were  those 
whose  souls  wept  in  secret  on  account  of  corruptions  which  they 
could  not  cure.  It  was  not  till  now  (1529)  that  men  felt  strong 
enough  and  bold  enough  to  lift  up  their  heads  and  make  public  pro- 
fession of  their  faith  and  demand  their  religious  freedom.  It  mat- 
tered not  that  their  protest  was  unlieeded  and  their  demand  denied 
by  both  the  civil  and  the  ecclesiastical  authority.  "If  God  be  for  us," 
said  they,  "who  can  be  against  us?"  But  in  thus  breaking  away 
from  Roman  Catholic  control  it  was  necessary  that  the  Reformers 
should  give  a  reason  for  the  faith  that  was  in  them. 

To  go  back  to  the  creeds  and  confessions  then  adopted  and  say. 
Here  are  Protestant  faith  and  practice  defined,  would  be  an  easy  way 
of  settling  what,  in  the  course  of  centuries  and  the  multiplication  of 
sects,  has  come  to  be  a  very  difficult  matter  to  secure — a  definition 
of  Protestantism.  For  in  common  parlance,  a  Protestant  means 
anybody  who  is  not  a  Roman  Catholic,  and  Protestantism  is  thus  a 
sort  of  drag-net  that  "gathers  fish  of  every  kind,"  from  the  believer 
in  the  Trinity  and  Incarnation  to  the  Mormon  and  the  agnostic,  and 
even  the  avowed  atheist.  Wliat,  then,  is  "the  Protestant  faith"? 
What,  or  whose  Protestantism,  then,  shall  be  defined  ? 

It  may  be  proper  to  state  here  that  the  definition  of  a  system  is  its 
poorest  part.  It  is  the  weakness  and  not  the  strength  and  glory  of  a 
system  that  its  real  power  and  distinctive  character  can  be  organized 
and  codified  and  reduced  to  a  finality.  Most  certain  is  it  that  the 
strength  of  Christianity  itself  is  not  found  in  any  elaborate  defini- 


230  CHRISTENDOM. 

tion  that  may  be  given  of  it.  Its  Founder  Himself  nowhere  defines 
it — unless  in  the  suggestive  statement,  "The  words  that  I  speak  unto 
you,  they  are  spirit  and  they  are  life."  Or  does  St.  Paul  define 
Christianity  when  he  says :  "The  law  of  the  spirit  of  life  in  Christ 
Jesus  has  made  me  free  from  the  law  of  sin  and  death"  ?  Certainly 
"spirit  and  life"  distinguish  Christianity. 

A  Divine  truth,  however,  is  not  a  truth  intelligible  to  all  as  a  mat- 
ter of  mere  definition  and  intellectual  exposition ;  that  it  may  become 
intelligible  it  may  require  to  be  translated  into  terms  of  life,  clothed 
with  flesh  and  blood,  and  warmed  with  a  tender  heart.  Mere  defi- 
nition may  not  demonstrate  anything;  deeds  alone  insure  demon- 
stration. So  the  "spirit  and  life"  of  Christianity  are  embodied  in 
Him — "He  went  about  doing  good."  Christ  is  Christianity.  And 
gince  Christianity  is  pre-eminently  a  personal  religion,  establishing 
the  most  intimate  and  solitary  relations  with  God,  its  essential  fea- 
tures are  more  forcefully  presented  through  life  than  through  logic. 
In  the  measure,  therefore,  in  which  Protestantism  is  allied  to  Chris- 
tianity, in  that  measure  does  it  elude  definition,  save  as  "spirit  and 
life"  may  be  defined. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  define  an  institution  whose  characteristics  and 
powers  reside  in  its  organization,  its  ceremonies  and  its  rites ;  a  sys- 
tem whose  every  doctrinal  deliverance  is  logically  consistent  with 
every  other  part,  and  whose  vast  machinery  is  directed  by  a  single, 
infallible  head;  a  system  which  demands  the  unconditional  surrender 
of  the  intellect,  the  conscience  and  the  will;  a  system  which  con- 
stantly calls  attention  to  itself,  and  as  constantly  reminds  its  ad- 
herents of  their  entire  dependence  upon  it  for  their  salvation,  since 
it  possesses  all  the  treasures  of  Divine  grace  and  forgiveness.  It 
must  be  quite  apparent  that  Protestantism  is  not  such  a  religious 
system — it  makes  a  very  different  claim  and  has  a  very  difl'crcnt  aim. 
So  far  from  the  Protestant  Church  calling  attention  to  itself  and 
asking  its  adherents  to  entrust  themselves  to  it  for  salvation,  im- 
pressiag  upon  them  their  entire  dependence,  it  is  its  constant  en- 
deavor to  direct  them  to  the  ever-living  and  the  ever-present  Christ, 
who  Himself  says,  "Come  unto  Me/'  But,  more  than  this,  it  is  the 
aim  of  Protestantism  to  make  man,  as  far  as  possible  and  as  speedily 
as  possible,  independent  of  the  church,  and  this  end  is  attained  just 
in  the  degree  in  which  its  members  advance  to  the  "measure  of  the 
stature  of  the  fulness  of  Christ."  The  distinguishing  feature,  there- 
fore, between  Romanism  and  Protestantism  is  this :     While  the  for- 


PKOTESTANT    CHKISTIANITY.  221 

mer  magnifies  the  church  and  endeavors  to  persuade  men  to  entrust 
themselves  to  her  for  pardon  and  guidance,  the  latter  magnifies  the 
living  Christ  and  endeavors  to  persuade  men  to  entrust  themselves 
to  Him  for  forgiveness  and  guidance.  There  follow,  naturally,  two 
seats  of  religious  authority :  The  seat  of  religious  authority  for  the 
Roman  Catholic  is  the  church — what  does  the  church  say? — while 
the  seat  of  religious  authority  for  the  Protestant  is  the  Christ — 
what  does  the  Christ  say? 

It  is  quite  apparent,  also,  that  the  office  of  the  Christian  Church, 
as  conceived  by  a  Eoman  Catholic  and  as  conceived  by  a  Protestant, 
is  considerably  different.  The  former  is  taught  to  regard  his  church 
as  a  necessary  means,  through  appointed  rites  and  ceremonies,  of 
mediation  between  himself  and  God;  while  to  the  Protestant  the 
office  and  value  of  the  Christian  Church  are  found  in  the  opportunity 
which  it  affords  for: 

( 1 )  Social  worship  and  the  administration  of  the  two  sacraments. 

(2)  An  opportunity  to  voice  and  witness  to  a  divine  revelation. 

(3)  An  opportunity  for  religious  instruction. 

(4)  An  opportunity  to  receive  inspiration  for  service  through 
communion  with  the  ever-present  Christ,  and  with  those  who  are 
animated  by  a  common  faith  in  Him  and  a  common  purpose — the 
realization  of  His  kingdom  in  the  world. 

It  would  be  a  wearisome  and  fruitless  task  to  attempt  to  define  the 
creedal  position  occupied  by  each  of  the  numerous  branches  of  Prot- 
estantism, even  though  we  were  to  confine  our  discussion  to  the  main 
bodies.  Our  task,  therefore,  is  reduced  to  a  statement  of  those  foun- 
dation principles  of  Protestantism,  the  enforcement  of  which  has 
made  such  glowing  history  during  the  last  four  hundred  years;  prin- 
ciples which,  broadly  speaking,  are  common  to  all  Protestants. 

THE  SUPREMACY  AND  SUFFICIENCY  OF  HOLY  SCRIPTURE. 

Protestantism,  whatever  may  be  said  to  the  contrary,  still  stands 
for  the  supremacy  and  sufficiency  of  Holy  Scripture  in  doctrine  and 
life.  True,  this  doctrine  is  as  old  as  the  Eeformation — ^better  still, 
it  is  as  old  as  Jesus  Christ.  Were  it  not  for  a  converted  Luther  and 
a  rediscovered  Bible,  the  Reformation  could  never  have  taken  place. 
The  Scriptures  became  to  Luther  what  the  church  had  formerly 
been — the  seat  of  authority,  the  court  of  final  appeal.  Said  Calvin : 
"If  Scripture,  as  the  only  religious  authority,  and  salvation  by  grace 


222  CHKISTENDOM. 

through  faith,  were  yielded,  it  would  not  pay  the  cost  to  contend 
about  other  matters  in  controversy" — all  other  differences  were 
but  eddies  in  the  main  stream. 

Tell  me,  ye  who  vsay  the  Bible  alone  is  not  sufficient  to  guide  man 
into  the  way  of  peace  and  spiritual  freedom,  have  you  anything  bet- 
ter to  offer?  Tell  me,  have  the  fathers,  or  the  councils,  or  the  voice 
of  the  "living  church"  added  a  single  sentence  to  the  sum  of  essen- 
tial Christian  truth  ?  Have  they  not  one  and  all  had  to  resort  to  the 
same  source  of  divine  truth,  which  is  open  to  us  all  alike  ?  True,  the 
living  church  can  interpret,  exemplify  and  enforce  the  truths  of 
Scripture,  but  can  she  add  an3^thing  thereto?  If  the  New  Testa- 
ment does  not  contain  a  sufficiently  clear  announcement  of  God's 
mercy,  we  will  look  in  vain  for  a  fuller  revelation  of  it  elsewhere. 

Some  timid  Protestants,  however,  have  been  greatly  disturbed  by 
the  announcement  that  their  seat  of  authority,  the  Bible,  has  been 
wholly  discredited  by  the  physical  sciences,  evolutionary  philosophy 
and  higher  criticism,  and,  in  consequence,  are  disposed  to  conclude 
that  our  Roman  Catholic  brethren  occupy  the  only  tenable  and  safe 
position,  in  possessing  an  infallible  head  whose  word  makes  the  Bible 
unnecessary.  But  let  any  who  may  thus  be  alarmed  turn  to  the 
paper  of  Professor  Schodde,  in  this  collection,  and  read  it  carefully. 
If  he  will  do  so,  there  will  not  remain  a  ghost  in  sight  to  disturb 
his  peace. 

That  the  Bible,  and  the  Bible  alone,  is  sufficient  to  guide  man  to 
peace  of  heart  and  righteousness  of  life  is  fully  confirmed  by  the 
testimony  of  Heinrich  Heine,  the  great  German  Jew,  who  said  at  the 
close  of  his  life:  "In  truth  it  was  neither  a  vision  nor  a  seraphic 
revelation,  nor  a  light  from  heaven,  nor  any  strange  dream,  nor 
other  mystery,  which  brought  me  into  the  way  of  salvation.  I  owe 
my  illumination  entirely  and  simply  to  the  reading  of  a  book.  A 
book?  Yes,  a  homely-looking  book,  modest  as  Nature,  and  also  as 
natural  as  she  herself — a  book  which  has  a  workaday  and  unassum- 
ing look,  like  the  sun  which  warms  us,  like  the  bread  which  nourishes 
us;  a  book  which  seems  to  look  at  us  as  cordially  and  blessingly  as 
the  old  grandmother  who  reads  it  daily  with  dear,  trembling  lips  and 
with  spectacles  on  her  nose.  And  this  book  is  called  quite  shortly 
the  Booh — the  Bible.  Eightly  do  men  also  call  it  the  Holy  Scrip- 
ture. He  who  has  lost  his  God  may  find  Him  again  in  this  Book, 
and  toward  him  who  has  never  known  God  it  sends  forth  a  breath  of 
the  Divine  Word."     And  he  says  also,  "Why  do  the  British  gain 


PROTESTANT    CHRISTIANITY.  223 

foothold  in  so  many  lands?  With  them  they  bring  the  Bible,  that 
grand  democracy  wherein  each  man  shall  not  only  be  king  in  his  own 
house  but  also  bishop.  They  are  demanding,  they  are  founding,  the 
great  kingdom  of  the  spirit,  the  kingdom  of  religious  emotions,  and 
the  love  of  humanity,  of  purity,  of  true  morality,  which  cannot  be 
taught  by  dogmatic  formulas,  but  by  parable  and  example,  such  as 
are  contained  in  that  beautiful,  sacred,  educational  Book  for  young 
and  old,  the  Bible." 

But,  it  may  be  said  in  reply,  while  the  Bible  is  sufficient  for  the 
individual's  guidance,  the  nations — the  world,  true  and  permanent 
civilization — require  more  than  the  Bible,  require  the  Roman  Cath- 
olic Church  to  furnish  them  with  the  fundamental  principles  of  so- 
cial order  and  political  permanency.  This  is  virtually  the  conten- 
tion of  Archbishop  Ireland  in  the  "Catholic  World"  of  September, 
1871:  "Protestantism,  like  the  heathen  barbarism  which  Catholi- 
cism subdued,  lacks  the  elements  of  order,  because  it  rejects  author- 
ity, and  is  necessarily  incompetent  to  maintain  real  liberty  or  civil- 
ized society.  Hence  it  is  we  so  often  say  that  if  the  American  Re- 
public is  to  be  sustained  and  preserved  at  all  it  must  be  by  the  re- 
jection of  the  principle  of  the  Reformation  and  the  acceptance  of  the 
Catholic  principle  by  the  American  people." 

And  in  his  sermon  at  the  centenary  of  the  establishment  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  hierarchy  of  the  United  States  in  1889,  the  Arch- 
bishop said :     "That  the  work  which  Roman  Catholics  in  the  coming 
century  were  called  to  do  in  the  United  States  was  to  make  America 
Catholic,  and  to  solve  for  the  church  universal  the  all-absorbing 
problem  with  which  the  age  confronts  her.     Our  work  is  to  make 
America  Catholic     ....     Our  cry  sliall  be,  ''God  wills  it,'  and 

our  hearts  shall  leap  with  CrUsader  enthusiasm.  We  know  the  church 
is  the  sole  owner  of  the  truths  and  graces  of  salvation     .... 

The  Catholic  Church  will  confirm  and  preserve,  as  no  human  power 
or  human  church  can,  the  liberties  of  the  Republic     .    ...     .     .The 

church  triumphant  in  America,  Catholic  truth  will  travel  on  the 
wings  of  American  influence,  and  with  it  enrich  the  universe.  .  . 
As  a  religious  system.  Protestantism  is  in  hopeless  dissolution, 
utterly  valueless  as  a  doctrinal  or  moral  power,  and  no  longer  to  be 
considered  as  a  foe  with  which  we  must  count.  .  .  .  The  Amer- 
ican people  made  Catholics,  nowhere  shall  we  find  a  higher  order  of 
Christian  civilization.  It  can  be  shown  to  the  American  people  that 
they  need  the  church  for  the  preservation  and  complete  development 


224  CHRISTENDOM. 

of  their  national  character  and  their  social  order.  The  Catholic 
Church  is  the  sole  living  and  enduring  Christian  authority.  She 
has  the  power  to  speak;  she  has  an  organization  by  which  her  laws 
may  be  enforced."* 

How  men  equally  good,  perhaps,  differ  respecting  Roman  Catholic 
ability  to  accomplish  the  best  results  for  mankind  becomes  apparent 
when,  after  reading  the  above,  we  turn  to  a  writer  like  Adam  Smith, 
who  says:  "The  Clnirch  of  Rome  is  the  most  formidable  combina- 
tion that  ever  was  formed  against  the  authority  and  security  of  civil 
government,  as  well  as  against  the  liberty,  reason  and  happiness  of 
mankind." 

Or,  if  we  turn  to  Mr.  Froude,  the  verdict  is  practically  the  same : 
"So  much  only  can  be  foretold  with  certainty,  that  if  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church  anywhere  recovers  her  ascendency,  she  will  again 
exhibit  the  detestable  features  which  have  invariably  attended  her 
^supremacy.  Her  power  will  be  once  more  found  incompatible  either 
with  justice  or  with  intellectual  growth,  and  our  children  will  be 
forced  to  recover  by  some  fresh  struggle  the  ground  which  our  fore- 
fathers conquered  for  us,  and  which  we  by  our  pusillanimity  sur- 
rendered." 

How  clearly  that  fine  spirit,  M.  de  Lavelaye,  saw  the  necessity  for 
the  Bible  in  his  country,  Belgium;  how  clearly  one  of  the  greatest 
Frenchmen  of  this  century,  M.  Guizot,  saw  it  in  France !  Being 
asked  one  day  what,  in  his  opinion,  was  the  cause  of  the  moral,  politi- 
cal and  social  evils  of  France,  the  historian  of  European  civilization 
answered,  "Want  of  faith.  Nothing  can  stand,  nothing  can  prosper, 
without  faith."  "What,  then,  is  the  remedy?"  said  his  interlocutor. 
"The  Gospel !  Preach  the  Word !  Circulate  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures !"t 

Return  to  Holy  Scripture,  therefore,  on  the  part  of  the  Reformers, 
was  a  return  to  primitive  Christianity — a  return  to  Christ ;  it  was  a 
return  to  the  only  authority  that  could  emancipate  the  conscience, 
give  spiritual  freedom,  produce  national  regeneration  and  world-wide 
evangelization ;  a  return  to  the  only  judge  that  could  authoritatively 
condemn  and  cast  out  the  multiplied  innovations  and  novelties  in 
doctrine  and  practice  that  had  been  introduced  by  the  church  during 
ihe  previous  thirteen  centuries. 

The  Bible  still  remains  supreme  among  the  world's  sacred  books, 

*Jas.  M.  King,  "Facing  the  20th  Century,"  page  199. 
f  R.  F.  Horton,  "England's  Danger,"  page  123. 


PROTESTANT    CHEISTIANITY.  235 

and  is  in  itself  the  safest  guide  in  life  and  the  greatest  consolation 
in  the  hour  of  death. 

RIGHT  OF  PRIVATE  JUDGMENT. 

But,  though  the  Bible  in  itself  is  a  treasure  of  supreme  value  to 
man,  what  were  it  worth  to  him  if  he  were  refused  access  thereto,  if 
he  were  denied  the  right  to  read  and  interpret  it  for  himself?  In- 
stead, he  must  allow  an  ecclesiastical  institution  to  read  and  interpret 
it  for  him.  But  who  ever  refused  to  any  one  the  privilege  of  reading 
Holy  Scripture  or  the  right  to  go  to  the  fountain-head  of  divine 
truth  and  learn  for  himself  what  the  Boole  teaches? 

When  told  by  Roman  Catholics  that  they,  too,  accept  the  Scrip- 
tures, but  that  only  the  church  can  interpret  them,  and  that  the 
Bible  is  not  a  safe  book  for  the  people,  Luther  rose,  more  power- 
ful, more  eloquent,  more  majestic,  than  before;  he  rose  superior  to 
himself.  "What,"  said  he,  "keep  the  light  of  life  from  the  people ; 
take  away  their  guide  to  heaven ;  keep  them  in  ignorance !  What 
an  abomination !  What  treachery  to  heaven !  Besides,  your 
authorities  differ;  what  would  Gregory  I  say  to  the  verdicts  of 
Gregory  VII?  No,  the  Scriptures  are  the  legacy  of  the  primi- 
tive Christian  Church,  and  are  the  equal  and  treasured  inheritance 
of  all  peoples.  0,  ye  blind  leaders  of  the  blind,  will  you  suffer  the 
people  to  perish,  soul  and  body,  because  you  fear  that,  instructed  by 
God  himself,  they  will  rebel  against  your  accursed  despotism !  No, 
I  say,  let  the  Scriptures  be  put  into  the  hands  of  everybody;  let 
every  one  interpret  them  for  himself ;  let  there  be  private  judgment ; 
let  spiritual  liberty  be  revived,  as  in  Apostolic  days.  Then  only 
will  the  people  be  emancipated." 

The  denial  of  the  right  of  private  judgment  as  an  article  of  faith 
at  the  Council  of  Trent  was  Rome's  answer  to  Luther's  demand. 
Thus  it  was  the  Reformers  protested  four  centuries  ago ;  it  is  against 
the  denial  of  the  same  privilege  that  their  children  protest  to-day. 

Bishop  Martensen,  of  Denmark,  says:  "All  sciences  were  in  the 
Middle  Ages  dependent  on  theology,  and  this  was  in  its  turn  depen- 
dent on  the  Popish  church  as  the  external  authority.  With  the 
Reformation  the  liberated  human  mind  broke  up  for  itself  new 
paths,  asserted  the  importance  of  the  secular  sciences  and  also  the 
right  of  every  one  to  read  with  his  own  eyes  what  is  written  in  the 
book  of  Nature.     Man's  mind  bowed  to  the  authority  of  Scripture 


326  CHRISTENDOM. 

not  only  as  the  written  Word,  but  because  Scripture  approved  itself 
to  the  conscience  by  the  inherent  power  of  divine  truth.  Truth  evi- 
dencing and  proving  itself  to  be  such  to  the  religious  consciousness, 
and  itself  producing  certainty  in  the  heart  of  man,  is  the  principle 
of  the  Eeformation  and  of  Protestant  theology." 

It  may  be  thought,  however,  that  refusal  to  allow  the  people  to 
read  and  interpret  the  Scriptures  for  themselves  is  only  a  figment 
in  the  mind  of  some  bigoted  Protestant.  Then  let  us  hear  what  a 
recent  Catholic  writer  named  Maclauchlin  says  in  a  work  which  has 
circulated  in  England  beyond  a  hundred  thousand  copies : 

"The  Catholic  Church  interdicts  the  use  of  private  judgment  in 
matters  of  faith;  she  has  ever  interdicted  it,  and  she  will  continue 
to  interdict  it  to  the  end  of  time.  Free  inquiry,  individual  prefer- 
ence, liberty  of  mind,  freedom  of  thought,  private  judgment  in  the 
domain  of  faith,  are  words  which  she  has  no  ears  to  hear.  She  will 
not,  she  cannot,  listen  to  them ;  they  would  rend  the  rock  on  which 
she  rests."* 

The  right  of  private  judgment  has  a  noble  sound,  but,  alas !  Prot- 
estants themselves  have  frequently  failed  to  live  up  to  the  doctrine. 
An  infallible  Bible,  a  second  pope,  has  been  set  up,  together  with 
the  addition  of  creeds  and  confessions  imposing  restraints  on  the 
conscience  and  intellect,  as  rigid  as  those  from  which  deliverance 
was  supposed  to  be  had.  "The  official  organization  of  the  church  has, 
at  various  times,"  says  Dr.  Crapsey,  "undertaken  to  do  the  think- 
ing not  only  for  its  own  age,  but  for  all  ages  to  come.  The  theory 
is  that  at  a  certain  time  God  made  a  final  revelation  to  man,  and 
that  the  official  organization  of  the  church  at  another  time  officially 
interpreted  that  revelation ;  and  that  ever  afterward  the  only  thing 
the  human  mind  has  to  do  is  to  think  what  had  been  thought  and  to 
say  what  had  been  said." 

"The  Outlook,"  in  commenting  on  a  recent  encyclical  of  the  Pope 
to  American  Catholicism,  takes  occasion  to  state  the  advanced  posi- 
tion of  Protestantism  respecting  the  right  of  private  judgment: 
"We  recognize  the  self-consistent  attitude  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church,  but  not  that  this  attitude  is  consistent  with  the  liberty 
wherewith  Christ  makes  free.  Nevertheless,  we  are  glad  to  have 
it  stated  with  such  explicitness,  for  it  will  help  clear  thinking.  For 
between  the  position  that  religious  faith  is  a  dogma  once  for  all 
delivered  to  the  saints,  and  either  transcribed  in  an  infallible  Bible 


*R.  F.  Horton,  "England's  Danger,"  page  96. 


PROTESTAI^T    CHRISTIANITY.  327 

or  committed  to  the  custody  of  an  infallible  church,  and  the  position 
that  every  man  is  a  child  of  God,  may  have  direct  communion  with 
God,  and  may  learn  for  himself  by  that  communion  what  the  will 
of  God  is ;  that  no  dogma  can  possibly  state  spiritual  truth  in  a  per- 
manent form,  that  philosophical  definitions  of  spiritual  life  must 
change  with  changing  philosophy,  as  the  language  in  which  they  are 
expressed  changes  with  changes  in  language  and  literature;  that 
truth  is  more  than  dogma  and  life  is  more  than  discipline;  that 
neither  truth  nor  life  has  been  or  can  be  ossified  in  a  written  record 
or  a  traditional  ecclesiastical  decree ;  that,  in  a  word,  the  kingdom  of 
God  is  like  a  seed  planted  in  the  ground,  which  grows  men  know  not 
how,  and  that  when  it  ceases  to  grow  it  ceases  to  live,  and  therefore 
ceases  to  be  the  kingdom  of  God — between  these  two  attitudes  there 
appears  to  us  to  be  no  middle  ground.  The  Roman  Catholic  Church 
is  the  self-consistent  exponent  of  an  infallible,  unchangeable  dogma, 
an  immobile,  unalterable  life.  Protestantism  will  never  be  self- 
consistent  until  it  stands  with  equal  courage  for  the  opposite  doc- 
trine— adaptability  of  religious  institutions  to  changing  circum- 
stances, the  mobility  of  religious  life  as  a  perpetual  growth,  and  the 
continual  change  of  dogmatic  definitions,  always  inadequate  to  ex- 
press the  ever-enlarging  spiritual  life  of  the  individual  and  of  the 
race." 

That  the  denial  of  religious  liberty  has  proved  fatal  to  the  true 
development  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  many  of  themselves  are 
happily  beginning  to  recognize.  For  that  the  levels  of  Protest- 
antism and  Romanism  are  essentially  different  is  a  fact  of  which  the 
more  enlightened  Catholics  are  just  now  becoming  uneasily  con- 
scious. One  of  the  most  striking  evidences  of  this  is  found  in  the 
remarkable  work  by  M.  Hermann  Schell,  rector  of  the  Catholic  Uni- 
versity of  Wurtzburg,  on  "Catholicism  as  a  Principle  of  Progress," 
in  which  the  author  sets  himself  to  answer  the  question,  "Why  Ger- 
man Catholics  are  so  inferior  to  their  Protestant  compatHots."  The 
fact  itself  he  assumes  as  beyond  question.  He  touches  the  nerve  of 
the  matter  in  his  contention  that  the  principle  of  ecclesiastical 
authority  which  lies  at  the  basis  of  priestly  education  and  of  general 
church  teaching  is  in  direct  opposition  to  that  spirit  of  scientific 
investigation  which  is  the  basis  of  modern  progress. 

Many  Catholics  are  thus  beginning  to  recognize  the  truth  of  what 
Dr.  Fairbairn  states  so  well  ("Religion  in  History,"  p.  176),  that 
"the  father  is  an  excellent  authority  when  his  family  are  children ; 


228  CHRISTENDOM. 

but  once  the  family  is  grown  they  must  not  be  treated  as  infants. 
Papacy,  making  men  spiritual  infants,  stands  in  the  way  of  the 
realization  of  the  highest  Christian  idea,  which  is  essentially  the  re- 
ligion of  manhood,  and  speaks  to  men  as  men." 

The  more  a  man  grows  inwardly  in  thought  and  experience,  the 
more  self-reliant  he  becomes,  the  less  is  he  disposed  to  be  governed 
by  external  authority,  and  the  less  does  external  authority  become 
needful.  "The  law  of  the  spirit  of  life  in  Christ  Jesus"  makes  every 
man  free  who  surrenders  himself  to  its  domination. 

That  Roman  Catholicism  has  not  been  disturbed  as  much  as 
Protestantism,  either  by  modern  science  or  historical  criticism,  is 
due,  first,  to  the  fact  that  the  discussion  of  such  has  not  been 
brought  to  the  attention  of  the  Roman  Catholic  people,  neither  in 
the  pulpit  nor  in  the  religious  press;  secondly,  as  the  Roman  Cath- 
olic does  not  depend  so  much  on  intellectual  conviction  as  on  the  in- 
fallible head,  therefore,  were  the  entire  Bible  to  become  discredited 
or  obsolete  he  would  simply  continue  to  rely  on  the  voice  of  the  liv- 
ing church,  as  to  him,  in  any  case,  the  Bible  is  not  the  first  and 
final  authority.  If,  however,  the  Protestant  should  have  been  so 
unwise  as  to  set  up  the  external  Word  as  a  second  infallible  pope, 
and  should  find  that  this  object  of  his  trust  has  become  discredited, 
whither  shall  he  go  for  religious  light  and  consolation? 

JESUS   CUEIST   THE   ONLY   MEDIATOR. 

"The  priest,  as  all  cults  present  him,  is  the  representative  of  man 
before  God.  He  stands  between  the  worshipper  and  his  Deity; 
without  his  mediation  there  is  no  access  to  the  mediation  of  heaven. 
His  office  no  one  else  can  exercise;  there  are  intercessions  which  are 
only  prevailing  when  he  makes  them;  rites,  ceremonies,  incanta- 
tions that  are  efficacious  when  he  employs  them ;  and  their  aim  is 
not  to  superinduce  a  healthier  state  within  the  worshipper — a  peni- 
tent heart,  a  surrendered  will — but  to  win  the  favor  of  an  vmmind- 
ful  or  offended  Deity.  The  system,  indeed,  is  capable  of  great  re- 
finement as  well  as  great  grossness ;  yet  in  its  better,  as  in  its  poorer, 
ministration,  the  same  essential  features  cling  to  it."  The  above 
statement — Mr.  Jackson's  "Martineau,"  p.  176 — may  be  taken  as 
representative  of  what  ha?  been  true  of  religion  generally.  But  let 
US  hear  Dr.  A.  M.  Fairbairn's  portrayal — "Religion  and  History,"  p. 
185 — of  how  and  when  the  priest  appeared  in  the  Christian  Church. 


PEOTESTANT    CHRISTIANITY.  229 

"In  the  earliest  Christian  literature,  apostolic  and  post-apostolic, 
no  man  who  bears  office  in  the  church  is  called  a  priest.  In  it  there 
was  no  official  priesthood  and  none  of  the  signs  and  rites  associated 
with  one.  The  men  who  held  office  were  called  either  apostles,  or 
prophets,  or  evangelists,  or  pastors,  or  teachers,  or  elders,  or  minis- 
ters, or  overseers,  but  never  priests.  About  the  end  of  the  second 
century,  however,  that  fateful  name  begins  to  appear.  A  great 
Latin  father,  Tertullian,  speaks  of  'the  sacerdotal  order,'  and  calls 
the  bishop  priest,  and  even  high  priest,  though  he  was  far  enough 
from  allowing  priesthood  in  any  sense  that  denied  the  spiritual 
priesthood  of  universal  Christian  men.  Half  a  century  later  an- 
other writer,  Cyprian,  makes  quite  a  strong  claim  on  behalf  of  an 
official  priesthood,  and  show  us,  just  beginning,  the  change  of  the 
Lord's  Supper  from  a  simple  feast  of  love  and  remembrance  into  a 
sacrificial  ceremony.  Now,  once  a  change  like  this  begins  it  pro- 
ceeds rapidly,  and  the  further  it  proceeds  the  more  disastrous  it  be- 
comes. It  forced  into  Christianity  many  of  the  limitations  and 
much  of  the  materialism  of  Judaism  and  paganism.  In  the  apostolic 
days  every  Christian  man  was  a  priest,  with  the  right  to  approach 
God  when  and  where  he  pleased ;  but  this  neo-heathenism  tended  to 
give,  and  ultimately  gave,  the  official  priest  the  right  to  stand  be- 
tween God  and  man,  distributing  the  grace  of  the  one,  granting  or 
denying  access  or  pardon  to  the  other.  In  the  religion  of  Christ,  no 
place  was  sacred  or  necessary  to  the  worship  of  the  Father,  the  one 
thing  needful  was  the  pure  and  true  spirit ;  but  the  renascent  sacer- 
dotalism created  a  whole  new  order  of  sacred  persons,  places,  cere-, 
monies,  acts,  which  had  to  be  respected  if  the  worship  was  to  be  ap- 
proved. The  Christianity  of  the  New  Testament  was  a  religion 
inward  and  spiritual,  all  its  virtues  were  those  of  the  believing, 
meek,  true  and  loving  spirit ;  but  the  Christianity  of  the  priesthood 
and  their  church  became  outward  and  material,  consisted  in  things 
the  priesthood  could  prescribe  and  regulate,  rather  than  the  obedi- 
ence commanded  and  approved  of  God." 

In  one  of  Luther's  most  pertinent  and  persuasive  papers,  the 
''Freedom  of  the  Christian  Man,"  or  the  "Priesthood  of  All  Be- 
lievers," he  smites  ecclesiasticism  in  one  of  its  most  vital  and  cher- 
ished features  and  thereby  dethrones  another  of  man's  most  dan- 
gerous enemies — spiritual  despotism.  Of  all  things  most  needful  to 
man,  in  a  religious  sense,  direct  access  to  God  is  the  most  impor- 
tant— when,  heart  to  heart  and  spirit  to  spirit,  man  may  commune 


230  CHRISTENDOM. 

with  his  Maker  as  friend  with  friend.  What  were  freedom  of  ac- 
cess to  the  Bible,  liberty  to  read  and  interpret  it,  worth  to  me,  were 
direct,  personal  intercourse  with  God  denied?  Consciously  lacking 
this  privilege,  or  failing  to  utilize  it,  I  must  remain  to  a  very  large 
degree  impoverished  and  forsaken  in  spirit. 

No  one  will  deny  that  it  has  been  Rome's  policy,  it  still  is,  and, 
as  at  present  constituted,  it  must  continue  to  be  her  policy,  to  im- 
press upon  her  adherents  a  sense  of  utter  dependence  upon  mother 
church.  When  a  Roman  Catholic  hears  Scripture  read,  as  he  may, 
and  the  voice  of  Jesus  saying,  "Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that  are  weary 
and  heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest,"  or,  "I  am  the  door ;  by 
me  if  any  man  enter  in  he  shall  be  saved,"  he  does  not  understand 
the  statements  as  meaning  what,  on  their  face,  they  seem  to  teach. 
If  any  untutored  mind  were  to  be  asked  to  interpret  these  passages 
of  Scripture,  he  would  reply,  doubtless :  "Why,  they  mean  Just  what 
they  say ;  come  directly  to  Jesus  Christ,  enter  directly  by  Him  into 
the  enjoyment  of  forgiveness  and  life."  But  the  church  steps  in 
and  says  no ;  "you  are  to  come  to  the  church ;  you  can  enter  into  the 
enjoyment  and  privileges  of  salvation  only  through  the  church;  with 
me  are  the  treasures  of  Divine  grace — forgiveness,  consolation,  eter- 
nal life — and  I  am  divinely  delegated  to  bestow  them  on  whomsoever 
I  will." 

How  different  from  the  finding  of  the  Reformers !  Everywhere 
in  Holy  Scripture  they  discovered  entreaty,  invitation  and  exhorta- 
tion addressed  to  man,  God's  child,  urging  him,  with  a  Divine  in- 
sistence, to  return  directly  to  his  Father,  than  whom  no  man  was 
ever  more  easily  approached.  When  man  recognizes  this  cardinal 
truth  of  Holy  Scripture,  and  enters  upon  the  enjoyment  of  his  birth- 
right— personal  fellowship  with  God — a  sense  of  dignity  and  en- 
richment fills  his  soul  of  which  no  earthly  power  can  rob  him. 

While,  therefore,  freedom  to  think  for  himself  gives  the  Protest- 
ant his  intellectual  and  political  supremacy,  direct  intercourse  with 
God  gives  him  his  moral  and  spiritual  supremacy. 

Schleiermacher  reduced  the  whole  difference  between  Romanism 
and  Protestantism  to  the  formula :  "Romanism  makes  the  relation 
of  the  individual  to  Christ  depend  on  his  relation  to  the  church; 
Protestantism,  vice  versa,  makes  the  relation  of  the  individual  to  the 
church  depend  on  his  relation  to  Christ."  In  other  words,  a  Protest- 
ant is  not  a  Christian  because  ho  is  in  the  church,  but  he  is  in  the 
church  because  he  is  a  Christian. 


PROTESTANT    CHRISTIANITY.  231 

The  Jews  of  Christ's  day  were  still  possessed  with  the  belief  that 
they  held  a  monopoly  in  the  favor  of  God.  It  required  a  special 
vision  to  drive  this  delusion  out  of  the  mind  of  St.  Peter  himself 
and  teach  him  that  "in  every  nation  he  that  feareth  God  and  work- 
eth  righteousness  is  accepted  with  Him."  Paul's  conversion  to 
Christianity  had  taught  him  that,  in  the  light  of  the  Incarnation, 
all  distinctions — class  or  racial — had  practically  disappeared,  and 
that,  henceforth,  there  was  to  be  "neither  Jew  nor  Greek,  barbarian, 
Scythian,  bond  nor  free."  How  slow  the  church  of  Jesus  Christ  has 
been  in  recognizing  and  applying  this  principle !  Why,  we  are  only 
now  beginning  to  be  taught  that  neither  the  peasant  at  his  plough 
nor  the  painter  at  his  canvas  need  be  one  hair's-breadth  surpassed, 
in  religious  privilege  and  devoutness,  by  either  the  priest  at  the  altar 
or  the  monk  in  his  cell. 

Men  speak  about  advancing  on  the  Word  of  God,  as  though  already 
they  had  sounded  all  its  heights  and  depths,  and  there  were  left  no 
new  discoveries  to  be  made  in  its  hidden  treasures.  Take  the  words 
of  our  Lord  to  the  woman  at  the  well,  e.  g.,  "The  hour  is  coming 
when  ye  shall  neither  at  this  mountain  nor  yet  at  Jerusalem  wor- 
ship the  Father."  Here  is  a  Scripture  whose  importance  to  the 
religious  world  can  scarcely  be  overestimated,  yet  whose  import,  after 
nineteen  centuries  of  Christian  history,  is  only  beginning  to  be  rec- 
ognized and  applied.  Persons  and  places,  seasons  and  services,  are 
all  one  to  him  to  whom  every  man  is  a  priest,  every  day  a  Sabbath, 
all  service  a  sacrament,  and  the  universe  God's  temple. 

JUSTIFICATION  BY  FAITH  ALONE. 

It  is  said  that  three  several  times  the  Scripture — "The  just  shall 
live  by  faith" — ^was  brought  home  to  Martin  Luther's  heart  with 
peculiar  power:  once  while  lecturing  in  the  university  at  Witten- 
berg; again,  when  ill  at  Bologna  on  his  way  to  Rome;  and  lastly 
when,  on  his  knees,  climbing  the  Holy  Stairs  in  the  Eternal  City. 
So  that  up  to  the  time  (1511)  of  his  visit  to  Rome,  this  truth,  that 
man  is  justified  by  faith  alone,  without  the  aid  of  good  works,  and 
without  the  promise  of  any — save  as  all  good  works  are  latent  in 
penitence  and  faith  in  Jesus  Christ — had  not  been  experimentally 
recognized,  as  even  then  he  hoped  to  ease  a  burdened  conscience  by 
making  a  full  confession  and  performing  all  the  penances  prescribed 
for  any  ordinary  pilgrim.     From  the  time  he  had  entered  the  mon- 


332  CHRISTENDOM. 

astery,  in  1505,  he  bad  sedulously  employed  all  the  prescribed  offices 
of  tbe  church  in  the  hope  of  finding  peace  of  conscience  and  assur- 
ance of  salvation.  Indeed,  he  tells  us  that,  should  any  one  win 
heaven  by  good  deeds,  he  had  determined  to  be  that  person.  But 
when  at  length  he  saw  that  God  forgives  the  penitent,  freely  and 
fully,  without  any  good  deeds  whatever  to  commend  him,  it  was  as 
the  bursting  forth  of  the  noonday  sun  in  midnight  darkness.  How 
could  he  fail  to  convey  the  joyous  fact  of  his  emancipation  to  his 
fellow-men,  whom  he  knew  to  be  held  in  bondage  to  the  same  mis- 
conceptions which  so  long  had  enslaved  himself?  Is  it  any  wonder 
that  henceforth  justification  by  faith  alone  became  the  central  theme 
of  his  teaching  and  preaching  ?  Had  he  not,  in  his  efforts  to  secure 
soul-relief,  conscientiously  and  diligently  complied  with  all  the 
methods  prescribed  by  man,  while  this,  the  method  of  God,  lay  on 
the  surface  of  His  Word  so  plainly  written  that  he  who  runneth  may 
read? 

It  is  difficult  to  see  how  the  Reformation  and  Protestantism  could 
have  been  possible  without  such  an  experience  on  the  part  of  a 
Martin  Luther,  as  the  doctrine  and  its  experience  gave  to  the  Refor- 
mation its  spiritual  power  and  moral  enthusiasm,  its  undaunted 
courage  and  ultimate  victory.  And  this  doctrine  of  justification  by 
faith  alone  is  the  truth  which,  more  than  any  other,  perhaps,  is 
to-day  making  for  the  freedom  of  man  and  the  establishment  of  the 
kingdom  of  God;  it  is  the  truth,  too,  which  must  be  kept  in  the 
forefront  of  all  our  Christian  teaching  and  preaching,  or  Protestant- 
ism will  speedily  become  what  it  would  deserve  to  become,  and  what, 
from  more  points  of  the  compass  than  one,  it  is  being  said  it  has 
already  become — a  failure.  But  Protestantism  is  not  a  failure,  as 
some  good  people  would  have  us  believe,  nor  is  it  a  finality.  It  is  a 
considerable  distance  just  now  from  decrepitude,  and  it  is  a  good, 
Jong  step  in  the  course  of  religious  evolution  toward  finality.  Prot- 
estantism is  not  as  yet  a  failure,  therefore,  and  will  never  become  a 
failure  so  long  as  its  four  cardinal  principles,  to  which  reference 
has  been  made,  are  maintained  and  enforced.  It  matters  little 
whether  the  terms  employed  in  presenting  these  principles  are  the 
same  as  those  employed  by  the  men  who  begat  them  in  agony  and 
conflict,  so  long  as  we  have  the  same  fruitage — liberty  of  conscience 
and  enthusiasm  for  righteousness. 

As  in  some  sense  and  to  some  degree  Jesus  was  the  child  of  the 
Jewish  Church  and  the  child  of  his  own  age,  so  the  Reformation 


PROTESTANT    CHRISTIANITY.  ?33 

was  in  some  sense  and  to  some  degree  the  child  of  the  Roman  Cath- 
olic Church  and  the  child  of  its  own  age.  The  Jewish  Church  was 
no  more  blameworthy  in  rejecting  Jesus  Christ  and  His  mission 
than  is  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  blameworthy  in  rejecting  the 
mission  and  principles  of  the  Reformation.  Had  the  Roman  Cath- 
olic hierarchy  been  consistent  and  carried  its  own  theory  of  ecclesias- 
tical and  doctrinal  development  to  its  logical  conclusion,  it  would 
have  acknowledged  the  Reformation  as  a  stage — and  a  very  impor- 
tant one — in  the  evolutionar}'  process. 

Now,  the  principles  which  Jesus  Christ  taught  and  for  which  He 
gave  His  life  have,  as  seen  in  their  application  through  the  centuries 
that  are  numbered  from  Him,  amply  justified  His  claim  to  recog- 
nition by  His  own  people.  And,  shall  I  say,  with  equal  reason,  the 
principles  which  made  the  Protestant  Reformation,  as  viewed  in 
their  application  from  the  vantage  ground  of  four  centuries,  have 
amply  justified  the  historic  protest  and  entitle  those  who  maintain 
them  to  recognition  on  the  part  of  Holy  Mother  Church  ? 

Why  is  it,  any  one  may  well  ask,  that  Romanism  so  heartily  dis- 
likes Protestantism  ? — a  dislike  which  appears  in  language  such  as 
this:  "Protestantism  in  all  its  forms  leads  the  pilgrim  astray. 
Protestantism  is  a  siren;  it  sings  to  the  seafarer  and  allures  him  to 
the  breakers.  Protestantism  is  the  enemy  of  God;  of  God's  truth; 
of  God's  church.  It  is  not  better  than  nothing,  because  good  for 
nothing." 

''Which  of  all  the  positions  of  Protestantism  was  new,  or  extra 
Biblical,  that  Romanism  should  have  disliked  it  so?  Was  it  the 
denouncement  of  indulgences? — which  had  never  been  heard  of  till 
the  eleventh  century.  Was  it  the  interdict  which  it  pronounced 
upon  the  Pope's  supremacy? — who  dared  not  himself  to  claim  this 
distinction  till  full  six  hundred  years  after  the  days  of  the  Apostles. 
Was  it  the  assertion  of  the  people's  right  to  search  the  Scriptures 
for  themselves? — when  for  three  centuries  every  father  of  the 
church,  to  say  nothing  of  Christ  and  His  Apostles,  urged  the  same 
doctrine.  Was  it  the  rejection  of  tradition,  as  a  co-ordinate  rule  of 
faith  ? — when  no  such  sentiment  was  broached  during  the  only  period 
when  apostolic  tradition  could  have  been  satisfactorily  identified. 
Was  it  the  exposure  of  the  monstrous  pretension  of  Rome's  infalli- 
bility?— which  had  never  obtained  currency  until  the  Roman  pontiff 
proclaimed  himself  universal  head  of  the  church,  in  the  seventh  cen- 
tury.    Was  it  the  contempt  which  Protestantism  poured  upon  the 


234  CHRISTENDOM. 

celibacy  of  the  clergy? — when  the  professed  head  of  the  Romish 
episcopate  was  married;  when  Paid  expressly  declares  that  'mar- 
riage is  honorable  in  all' ;  when  one  of  the  signs  of  apostate  Rome  is 
that  she  'forbids  to  marry' ;  and  when  for  three  centuries  the  impure 
dogma  was  unknown  to  the  Christian  Church.  Was  it  the  denial  of 
purgatorial  fire? — ^when  no  trace  of  such  a  doctrine  can  be  fairly 
discovered  in  the  Word  of  God,  or  in  the  teaching  of  the  fathers,  for 
more  than  six  hundred  years.  Was  it  the  unsparing  condemnation 
of  the  Mass  and  the  adoration  of  the  Host? — which  had  their  dis- 
tinct origin  in  the  Florentine  Council,  early  in  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury. Was  it  the  stern  denouncement  of  image-worship,  of  the  in- 
vocation of  departed  saints,  of  prayer  to  the  Virgin,  of  supplication 
for  the  dead  ? — none  of  which  corruptions  were  known  till  the  fourth 
century,  and  some  of  which  were  the  offspring  of  the  thirteenth. 
Was  it  the  bold  and  determined  stand  made  by  the  Reformers  against 
priestly  absolution  and  auricular  confession,  with  the  several  abom- 
inations to  which  they  led  ? — when  these  novelties  were  of  no  earlier 
date  than  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries.  Was  it  the  plea 
urged  by  them  for  public  liturgies  and  offices  of  devotion  in  the 
vulgar  tongue? — when  the  Latin  ritual  was  never  introduced  till 
the  seventh  century.  Was  it  the  loud  voice  of  remonstrance  which 
sounded  in  Rome's  ears  for  robbing  the  laity  of  the  cup  in  the 
Eucharist  ? — when  the  impious  proposal  was  never  heard  of  till  the 
eleventh  century.  Was  it  the  caveat  urged  against  the  addition  of 
five  sacraments  to  those  instituted  by  Christ  and  His  Apostles? — 
when  that  addition  was  made  by  fallible  mortals  in  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury. Was  it  the  removal  of  the  apocryphal  books  from  the  canon 
of  Holy  Scripture? — when  they  never  found  a  place  in  it  until  the 
Council  of  Trent,  in  the  sixteenth  century,  did  this  mighty  dis- 
honor to  the  living  oracles  of  revealed  truth.  It  may  be  fearlessly 
asserted,  then,  that  whatever  Rome  retains  from  antiquity,  of  any 
real  worth,  she  holds  it  in  common  with  the  churches  of  the  Refor- 
mation. The  leading  points  of  doctrine  against  which  the  Re- 
formers protested  were  pure  innovations  and  novelties,  the  date  of 
which  may  be  distinctly  marked  on  the  page  of  history."* 

The  principle,  to  which  reference  has  been  made  in  the  first  part 
of  this  paper,  has  more  than  once  been  applied  in  the  case  of  Protest- 
antism itself,  and  may  need  to  be  applied  again  when  the  arrogance, 

♦John  Morrison,  D.D.,  "Protestant  Reformation  in  All  Countries,"  pp. 
488-491. 


PROTESTANT    CHRISTIANITY.  235 

engendered  by  growing  wealth  and  influence,  leads  the  Protestant 
Church  into  the  same  quagmire  as  has  so  foully  besmeared  Rome. 
Protestantism  has  no  guarantee  of  immunity  from  an  arrogant 
spirit,  political  ambitions,  striving  after  national  recognition  and 
public  favor,  preaching  a  Gospel  suited  to  the  tastes  and  pleasures 
and  extravagances  of  the  rich,  regarding  wealth  or  numbers  as 
power,  despising  the  poor  and  the  man  of  toil — when  it  comes  to 
this  with  Protestantism,  no  matter  against  what  it  may  protest  in 
others,  no  matter  what  theories  it  may  adopt  for  itself,  God  shall 
smite  the  institution  with  a  blast  that  shall  blight  all  its  finest  blos- 
soms and  turn  its  fairest  fruits  to  rottenness,  making  Protestantism 
a  stench  and  a  hissing  among  the  people.  The  Kingdom,  the  privi- 
lege of  establishing  and  representing  the  Kingdom  of  God,  shall  be 
taken  from  the  churches  of  Calvin  and  Luther,  Canterbury  and  Wes- 
ley, and  shall  be  given  into  the  hands  of  the  "weak  things  of  the 
world,"  which  shall  confound  the  mighty ;  and  these  shall  administer 
God's  trust,  not  in  the  interests  of  a  system,  or  of  a  class,  or  of  a 
theory,  but  in  the  interests  of  man.  This  is  an  everyday  lesson  of 
history,  both  secular  and  sacred,  a  lesson  confirmed  both  by  Scrip- 
ture and  experience.  God  can  do  without  Protestantism,  if  Protest- 
antism refuses  to  co-operate  with  Him  and  serve  His  people  with  its 
best. 


PROTESTANT  FOREIGN  MISSIONS:  A  RET- 
ROSPECT OF  THE  NINETEENTH 
CENTURY.* 


JuDsoN  Smith,  D.D., 

BOSTON. 

[The  immediate  hope  of  Christian  unity  seems,  to  "The  Spirit  of  Mis- 
sions," to  lie  in  the  foreign  field,  where  there  are  closer  relations  between  the 
different  bodies  of  Christians  than  elsewhere.  It  is  perfectly  natural,  and 
an  experience  in  other  walks  of  life,  that  those  who  feel  the  stress  of  cir- 
cumstances most  strongly  are  most  closely  di*awn  together.  Those  to  whom 
life  is  labor,  on  whom  the  work  to  be  done  presses' always  insistent,  have  not 
time  to  divide  the  mint,  anise  and  cummin  of  social  or  theologic  distinction. 
Prosperity  is  very  apt  to  beget  self-satisfaction,  and  self-satisfaction  is  very 
likely  to  cause  dissatisfaction  with  other  people.  In  the  mission  field  the 
Master's  business  is  too  absorbing  for  those  who  are  faithful  to  it  at  all  to 
allow  jealousy  to  take  root.  A  recent  witness  of  this  is  the  General  Con- 
ference of  Missionaries  at  Tokyo,  who  I'esolved  "that  all  those  who  are  one 
with  Christ  by  faith,  are  one  body,"  and  then  put  their  resolution  into  action 
in  a  letter  just  issued  to  all  Christians  in  Japan,  asking  them  to  make  "Our 
Lord's  desire  for  the  oneness  of  all  who  believe  in  His  name  an  object  of 
special  prayer,"  of  which  the  letter  suggests  a  suitable  form.  They  do  not 
mince  matters  at  all,  these  Christians  in  Japan.  It  is  no  indefinite  bond 
between  individuals  at  which  they  aim,  but  "a  corporate  oneness,  a  oneness 
of  the  churches  as  churches  that  shall  be  manifest  to  all  the  world." — "The 
Churchman,"  Aug.  17,  1901.— Ed.] 

*  *  » 

The  nineteenth  century  has  gone  into  history  with  an  imperish- 
able name  and  glory.  During  its  progress,  our  knowledge  of  the 
world  and  of  the  people  who  live  in  it  has  been  vastly  expanded. 
The  whole  domain  of  physical  science,  if  it  has  not  been  discovered, 
has  certainly  been  explored  and  mapped  out  in  the  most  comprehen- 
sive way.  Inventions,  and  those  of  the  greatest  importance,  have 
multiplied  beyond  all  precedent.  Steam  and  electricity  have  been 
applied  to  human  needs  in  manifold  forms,  have  revolutionized 
modes  of  travel  and  have  brought  the  ends  of  the  world  together. 
Solid  gains  have  been  made  in  the  possession  of  civil  and  religious 
liberty;  the  leading  nations  are  coming  to  a  mutual  understanding 

♦Appeared  in  "The  North  American  Review,"  March,  1901. 

236 


PROTESTANT    MISSIONS.  237 

and  combining  in  a  league  for  perpetual  peace.  Time  would  fail 
to  tell  of  the  gains  in  Education,  Literature,  the  Arts  and  Social 
Forces,  which  enrich  life  and  enhance  personal  power.  But  if  the 
nineteenth  century  is  the  saeculum  mirabile  in  these  respects,  it  is 
quite  as  much  so  in  the  development  of  the  Foreign  Missionary  en- 
terprise. There  are  but  two  other  periods  in  the  history  of  Chris- 
tianity that  can  compare  with  it  in  this  respect — the  first  three  cen- 
turies, including  the  Apostolic  Age,  and  the  three  centuries  at  the 
opening  of  the  Middle  Ages.  In  the  former,  the  church  was  found- 
ed, the  nations  taught  and  the  Roman  Empire  Christianized ;  in  the 
latter,  the  peoples  of  central  and  northern  Europe  were  converted 
and  brought  into  the  circle  of  Latin  Christendom.  At  the  beginning 
of  the  nineteenth  century  there  were  a  few  societies,  scantly  manned 
and  equipped,  prosecuting  their  work  far  apart,  not  without  spirit 
and  promise,  but  with  very  meager  results.  At  the  end  of  the  cen- 
tury, we  see  an  enterprise  of  wide  reach,  conscious  of  itself,  ex- 
perienced, wisely  drilled  and  led,  attempting  great  things  and  win- 
ning splendid  victories.  It  is  like  the  Parliamentary  army  in  the 
Puritan  Revolution,  at  first  not  without  merit,  of  high  purpose,  but 
not  united,  not  efi'ective,  which  at  last  became  the  Ironsides  that  won 
at  Naseby  and  Dunbar  and  Worcester,  sweeping  everything  before 
it,  entering  no  battle  but  to  conquer. 

The  Modern  Era  of  Protestant  Foreign  Missions  set  in  decisively 
with  William  Carey,  and  the  formation  in  1792  of  the  English  Bap- 
tist Missionary  Society  under  his  leadership.  The  London  Mission- 
ary Society,  in  which  many  Dissenting  churches  united,  followed  in 
1795;  a  Scotch  Society,  and  one  in  the  Netherlands,  in  1797;  the 
Church  Missionary  Society,  within  the  Anglican  Church,  in  1799. 
One  fact  should  be  premised.  As  there  were  heroes  before  Agamen- 
non,  so  there  were  Protestant  missions  before  Carey's  time;  and 
foreign  missionary  work  had  been  done  on  this  side  of  the  sea  before 
the  days  of  Mills  and  Judson  and  Hall.  In  some  proper  sense,  the 
discovery  of  this  western  world  was  in  the  interest  of  the  wider 
spread  of  the  Gospel;  Columbus  sought  to  enlarge  the  jurisdiction 
and  blessings  of  the  Roman  Church.  Plymouth  Colony  was  de- 
signed to  gain  a  free  field  for  the  reformed  faith,  and  a  foothold 
whence  to  spread  the  Gospel  into  new  parts  of  the  world.  John 
Eliot's  work  among  the  Indians  to  the  west  of  Roxbury,  from  1646, 
wag  a  fine  instance  of  foreign  missionary  enterprise ;  and  it  was  only 
one  among  many.     The  Mayhews  and  Sargents  wrought  on  the  same 


238  CHRISTENDOM. 

plan.  The  great  work  of  the  Moravians,  from  1732,  in  Southern 
Africa,  in  Labrador,  in  the  West  Indies,  is  a  noble  instance  of  pioneer 
effort  in  hard  places. 

Let  us  take  a  brief  survey  of  the  state  of  Foreign  Missions  one 
hundred  years  ago.  Carey  is  just  beginning  his  wonderful  work  as 
translator  at  Serampore;  the  first  labors  of  the  London  Missionary 
Society  are  enduring  the  "night  of  toil"  on  Tahiti  before  any  fruit 
appears;  the  Moravians  are  bearing  the  Word  to  darkened  souls  in 
remote  parts  of  the  Eastern  and  Western  hemispheres.  The  churches 
are  scarcely  awake  to  the  call,  or  to  their  privilege  in  responding  to 
it;  the  enterprise  is  known  by  few  and  believed  in  by  fewer  still. 
There  are  few  converts  on  foreign  soil,  here  and  there  a  feeble  band ; 
no  schools  for  training  native  laborers;  the  Bible  speaks  as  yet  in 
few  vernaculars.  Goodly  beginnings  have  been  made,  the  church 
is  awakening,  and  all  is  hopeful;  but  it  is  the  gray  dawn  of  the 
day,  and  it  is  faith  only  that  can  take  in  the  greater  things  that 
are  at  hand.  Scarcely  a  dozen  missionary  societies,  all  in  Great 
Britain  and  Germany,  a  few  scores  of  missionaries  scattered  through 
many  lands,  a  handful  of  converts  and  pupils,  a  total  expenditure 
of  a  few  thousands  a  year — ^this  is  the  scene  which  presents  itself 
at  the  opening  of  the  century.  From  this  point  the  growth  has  been 
slow  but  continuous,  and  accelerating  through  the  successive  de- 
cades ;  until  we  reach  the  facts  with  which  all  are  familiar  to-day. 

The  expansion  of  the  fields  occupied  by  foreign  missions  is  one 
of  the  most  striking  facts  of  the  century.  Where  Carey  stood  alone 
at  its  opening,  more  than  two  thousand  missionaries,  representing 
fifty  different  societies,  now  occupy  nearly  every  strategic  point  in 
the  vast  peninsula  of  India  and  in  Ceylon.  And  Burma  and  Siam 
and  China  and  Japan,  not  even  explored  as  missionary  ground  at 
that  time,  are  studded  with  mission  stations  and  teem  with  a  vast 
volume  of  missionary  labors.  Africa  was  then  touched  only  by  the 
Moravians  in  a  few  points;  to-day  thousands  of  missionaries,  from 
nearly  fifty  societies,  are  at  work  around  all  its  vast  seaboard,  and 
among  many  tribes  in  the  interior,  then  wholly  unexplored.  The 
pioneers  of  the  London  Missionary  Society  had  just  arrived  among 
the  islands  of  the  Pacific,  where  now  well-nigh  every  group  has  its 
missionaries,  and  not  a  few  have  become  active  centres  of  a  wider 
Christian  propagandism.  And,  in  short,  there  is  scarcely  a  country, 
or  tribe,  or  island  on  the  earth  where  missionaries  are  not  at  work, 
and  where  the  Christian  Church  does  not  already  exert  its  uplifting 


PROTESTANT    MISSIONS.  239 

influence.  There  is  no  recorded  march  of  military  conquest  that  is 
more  resistless,  significant  or  inspiring,  than  this  steady  expansion 
of  the  foreign  missionary  enterprise. 

The  most  reliable  statistics  enumerate  449  different  Protestant 
Foreign  Missionary  organizations  to-day,  249  of  them  directly  de- 
voted to  missionary  work,  92  indirectly  co-operating  in  such  work, 
and  102  engaged  in  special  lines  of  work.  There  is  scarcely  a  Prot- 
estant denomination  that  does  not  have  its  society,  its  field,  and  its 
laborers.  This  is  a  new  and  significant  fact  in  Christian  history. 
For  the  few  scores  of  missionaries  at  work  in  1800,  at  the  close  of 
the  century  we  have  13,607,  with  an  army  of  73,615  native  helpers 
by  their  side,  distributed  in  over  five  thousand  central  stations 
through  all  the  unevangelized  peoples  of  the  earth.  In  this  single 
fact  we  have  the  promise  of  final  victory.  In  these  fields  are  10,993 
organized  churches,  with  a  membership  of  1,289,289  souls,  increas- 
ing at  the  rate  of  83,895  each  year.  The  annual  income  of  the 
major  societies  has  reached  the  noble  sum  of  $17,161,092,  and  the 
yearly  gifts  from  native  Christians  aggregate  $1,833,981.  The  edu- 
cational work  presents  like  noble  proportions.  There  are  93  col- 
leges on  mission  fields,  with  35,414  students,  of  whom  2,275  are 
women;  of  theological  and  training  schools,  385  are  reported,  with 
1 1,905  students.  Boarding  and  high  schools  number  857,  and  83,- 
148  pupils;  industrial  and  medical  classes  count  197,  and  enroll 
6,998  pupils ;  while  in  common  or  day  schools,  the  pupils  reach  the 
number  of  904,442.  The  grand  total  of  those  under  instruction  is 
1,046,309,  one-third  of  them  girls.  The  Bible,  entire  or  in  portions, 
has  been  translated  into  421  different  languages  or  dialects;  a  work 
of  incalculable  labor  and  value,  of  itself  alone  sufficient  to  challenge 
for  this  great  enterprise  the  profound  respect  of  the  civilized  world. 
Add  to  this  the  products  of  mission  presses — 364,904,399  pages  of 
Christian  literature  annually,  and  297,435  copies  of  periodical  liter- 
ature— and  the  significance  of  this  fact  becomes  majestic^in  propor- 
tions and  influence.  Besides  all  this,  bear  in  mind  the  355  hospi- 
tals and  753  dispensaries,  with  2,579,650  patients  treated  every 
year,  to  every  one  of  whom  the  Gospel  is  preached,  many  hearing  it 
for  the  first  time;  and  the  Foreign  Missionary  enterprise  that  in- 
cludes all  these  varied  agencies  assumes  the  dimensions  and  charac- 
ter of  the  greatest  single  force  for  the  uplifting  and  regeneration 
of  the  world  which  we  know  or  of  which  we  can  conceive.  All  this 
is  the  achievement  of  the  century  which  lies  behind  us,  and  is  a  just 


240  CHEISTENDOM. 

index,  but  by  no  means  the  full  proof,  of  the  progress  of  missions 
in  this  period.  And  when  we  consider  that  the  rate  of  advance  has 
been  accelerating  with  every  decade,  that  this  century  has  been 
marked  by  pioneer  work,  and  that  now  the  forces  that  co-operate 
here  are  working  at  their  best,  who  can  measure  the  significance  of 
the  animating  scene  that  rises  before  us  in  the  new  century,  or  fail 
to  exult  in  the  nearing  prospect  of  Christ's  universal  sway  among 
the  nations  of  the  earth  ? 

It  is  instructive  to  note  the  great  names  that  mark  these  decades, 
and  lift  the  service  they  represent  above  all  petty  criticism  and 
thoughtless  ridicule.  Among  them  are  such  as  Carey,  Marshman, 
Duff,  Hall  and  Ballantine  in  India ;  Judson  and  Vinton  in  Burma ; 
Moffatt,  Livingstone  and  Lindloy  in  Africa;  Dwight,  Hamlin  and 
Riggs  in  Turkey;  Morrison,  Bridgman  and  Parker  in  China;  Pat- 
tison,  Williams,  Bingham  and  Gulick  in  the  Pacific  Islands.  And 
what  shall  we  say  more  of  Ashmore  and  Griffith,  John  and  Blodget, 
of  Davis  and  Verbeck  and  Hepburn,  of  Chamberlain  and  Clough,  of 
Logan  and  Paton,  who,  through  faith,  have  "subdued  kingdoms, 
wrought  righteousness  and  obtained  a  good  report." 

There  are  many  particular  facts  included  in  this  general  descrip- 
tion of  progress,  which  may  well  detain  our  thoughts  for  a  time. 
Kote  first  the  growing  enlistment  of  the  church  in  this  great  work. 
How  difficult  Carey  found  it  to  draw  the  Baptist  churches  of  Eng- 
land into  the  effort  of  supporting  a  mission  in  India !  Recall  the 
indifference  which  the  London  Missionary  Society  had  to  encounter, 
the  animosity  which  missionary  proposals  evoked  in  Scotland,  the 
opposition  which  the  chartering  of  the  American  Board  called  out. 
But  little  by  little  the  atmosphere  changed,  the  trickling  streams  be- 
came rills,  and  rills  deepened  and  multiplied  and  formed  brooks  and 
rivers;  till  now  the  winter  is  vanished  and  it  is  springtime  every- 
where. It  is  no  longer  good  form  for  any  Protestant  Church,  or 
for  any  Protestant  Church  members,  to  have  no  share  in  mission 
work.  The  Woman's  Boards,  which  began  their  work  only  thirty 
years  ago  and  now  number  120,  with  an  annual  income  of  $2,500,- 
000,  are  both  cause  and  effect  of  the  widening  hold  of  this  enter- 
prise ;  the  Student  Volunteer  Movement,  with  an  organization  which 
reaches  thousands  of  colleges  and  seminaries,  and  belts  the  globe, 
with  its  grand  apparatus  for  the  study  of  missions  and  the  awaken- 
ing of  enthusiasm  for  missionary  work,  is  a  noble  proof  of  its  deep- 
ening sway  in  all  the  schools  for  higher  education.     And,  though 


PROTESTANT    MISSIONS.  241 

we  are  still  far  from  what  is  ideal  in  condition,  the  progress  is  so 
prodigious  as  to  call  for  the  deepest  gratitude. 

The  dimensions  and  influence  of  the  native  agency  in  the  field 
constitute  another  fact  of  peculiar  significance  and  glorious  hope. 
It  is  all  the  product  of  the  nineteenth  century ;  and  no  part  of  mis- 
sion work  is  of  greater  value.  Every  native  pastor  becomes  an 
apostle  to  his  own  people,  and  does  more  to  make  the  Gospel  perman- 
ent in  the  land  than  any  missionary  can  do.  Multiply  them  suffi- 
ciently, and  the  missionary  is  needed  no  longer;  they  themselves 
become  the  leaders  and  bulwark  of  the  native  church.  It  is  by  them 
that  every  land  is  to  be  evangelized.  And  the  fact  that  to-day  73,- 
000  native  helpers  are  co-operating  with  the  13,000  foreign  laborers, 
that  there  are  as  many  native  pastors  as  there  are  ordained  men 
from  all  Christian  lands,  is  a  noble  proof  how  far  the  work  has  ad- 
vanced, a  glorious  promise  that  it  is  presently  to  be  complete. 

A  notable  evidence  of  the  progress  which  missions  have  made  is 
found  in  the  character  and  deeds  of  the  native  Christian  communi- 
ties in  many  lands.  This  is  a  demonstration  beyond  all  question  or 
cavil.  Instances  may  be  brought  from  many  fields;  I  mention  but 
three. 

After  a  period  of  remarkable  growth,  the  Christians  of  Madagas- 
car were  subjected  to  the  fiercest  of  persecutions  under  the  wicked 
Eanalavona,  through  a  series  of  years,  with  their  foreign  leaders  all 
expelled  from  the  island.  They  perished  by  the  score  and  by  the 
hundred,  till  they  wearied  out  their  persecutors,  but  kept  their  faith 
and  enriched  the  martyr  hosts  of  the  Christian  Church. 

When  missionaries  went  to  the  Fiji  Islands,  in  1835,  the  people 
were  heathen  and  cannibals,  the  terror  of  their  neighbors  and  of 
all  mariners.  After  a  period  of  fifty  years,  cannibalism  had  ceased; 
all  idols  had  vanished ;  Christianity  was  in  possession  of  the  islands ; 
as  many  people,  in  proportion  to  the  population,  attended  church 
there  as  in  Massachusetts;  and  their  gifts  for  religious  purposes 
ranked  with  the  most  generous  in  the  world. 

Until  very  recently  China  has  been  deemed  one  of  the  most  dif- 
ficult of  missionary  fields,  the  converts  being  few  and  progress  slow. 
Morrison  began  in  1808;  in  1840  there  were  but  six  converts;  in 
1860  they  hardly  reached  a  thousand.  To-day  they  exceed  a  hun- 
dred thousand,  and,  until  the  recent  anti-foreign  disturbance  broke 
out,  they  were  doubling  in  less  than  ten  years.  And  now  their  char- 
acter has  been  tested  in  the  fierce  fiame  of  persecution;  hundreds 


242  CHRISTENDOM. 

and  thousands,  for  their  faith,  "have  not  loved  their  lives  to  the 
death."  And  the  Chinese  Church  is  the  martyr  church,  Christian 
faith  and  love  casting  a  celestial  radiance  upon  the  horrors  that  have 
filled  the  land.  By  the  side  of  Polycarp,  Ignatius,  Cyprian,  whom 
we  sing  and  praise  forevermore,  stand  now  these  Chinese  believers, 
who  have  renewed  the  deeds  and  heroism  of  those  early  martyrs  be- 
fore our  very  eyes.  And  in  a  thousand  homes  in  many  climes,  the 
virtues  that  bespeak  Christ's  transforming  power  even  more  clearly 
than  a  martyr's  death,  blossom  in  beauty  and  fill  the  land  with  a 
glorious  light. 

When  the  century  opened,  the  great  religions  of  the  East  seemed 
to  stand  untouched  and  strong,  firm  in  their  hold  upon  the  people, 
stout  in  the  opposition  they  offered  to  the  entrance  of  a  new  faith. 
This  was  one  of  the  serious  obstacles  which  missions  had  to  encounter 
as  each  new  field  was  entered.  Many  things,  doubtless,  have  con- 
tributed to  the  change  which  we  witness :  the  extension  of  commerce ; 
the  wider  reach  of  England's  influence;  the  internal  decay  of  the 
old  faiths ;  the  demonstrated  power  of  Christianity  to  give  comfort, 
courage,  an  aggressive  spirit,  a  noble  style  of  life  and  thought.  To- 
day these  religions  have  ceased  to  be  formidable  opponents  of  the 
Christian  faith.  Hinduism,  Buddhism,  Confucianism,  are  but  the 
shadows  of  their  former  strength,  and  seem  on  the  point  of  extinc- 
tion. In  nothing  have  we  a  surer  proof  of  the  progress  of  missions, 
the  resistless  growth  of  the  Kingdom  of  Christ.  What  Milton  saw, 
in  poetic  vision,  of  the  power  of  Christ  in  the  presence  of  the  ancient 
faiths,  is  becoming  reality : 

"The  oracles  are  dumb; 

No  voice  or  hideous  hum 
Runs  through  the  arched  roof  in  words  deceiving ; 

Apollo  from  his  shrine 

Can  no  more  divine, 
With  hollow  shriek  the  steep  of  Delphos  leaving." 

The  message  of  the  missionary  lias  not  changed ;  indeed,  it  can- 
not change  imtil  the  errand  of  Christianity  in  the  earth  is  finished. 
Differences  of  methods  there  have  been;  variations  in  the  place  of 
emphasis  may  be  noted ;  diversities  of  gifts  will  always  exist.  But 
the  vital  message  of  the  missionary  is  the  same  to-day  as  that  of 
St.  Paul  in  Macedonia  and  Athens,  the  same  as  when  Carey  and 
Judson  began;  the  same  in  China  and  Japan  as  it  is  in  India  and 


PROTESTANT    MISSIONS.  243 

Africa.  Its  great  theme  is  the  living  God,  Maker  of  heaven  and 
earth,  revealed  in  Jesus  Christ  for  the  redemption  of  man,  speaking 
to  the  conscience  and  heart  of  man  through  His  written  word,  and 
supremely  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  opening  the  Kingdom  of  heaven 
with  peace  on  earth  and  a  glorious  immortality  to  all  believers. 
The  missionary  proclaims  the  God  of  love  and  salvation,  and  opens 
the  door  of  hope  to  all  the  children  of  men.  This  message  can  never 
change  while  sin  exists  and  human  nature  remains  the  same.  It 
is  redemption  that  men  need,  it  is  redemption  that  Christ  brings, 
it  is  redemption  that  the  missionary  preaches  wherever  he  goes. 
This  is  his  single  theme,  his  ample  message,  his  persuasive  story. 
All  else  may  change;  tongues  may  cease,  knowledge  may  vanish 
away ;  but  this  remains  the  supreme  word  of  life  to  a  hopeless  world. 
Civilized  nations,  refined  peoples,  these  later  days,  need  it,  wait  for 
it,  will  perish  without  it,  as  truly  as  barbarous  nations  and  savage 
peoples  and  the  ancient  days. 

The  century  has  been  a  period  of  beginnings,  of  pioneer  work  in 
many  lines.  It  is  not  reasonable  to  demand  completed  results. 
Much  time  has  necessarily  been  given  to  exploration,  to  the  discovery 
of  lands  and  peoples  and  opportunities  for  work.  This  has  already 
been  carried  so  far  that  it  is  a  simple  statement  of  fact  to  say  that 
the  unevangelized  world  is  fully  opened  and  accessible  to  missionary 
labor.  It  is  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the  world  when  this 
could  be  truthfully  said.  This  work  will  not  need  to  be  repeated. 
The  mastery  of  the  vernaculars  of  the  people  among  whom  the  work 
is  to  be  done  was  an  imperative  prerequisite  to  the  success  of  the 
enterprise.  In  many  cases  the  languages  had  never  been  reduced  to 
written  form,  and  this  was  the  first  duty  awaiting  the  missionary. 
To-day  this  herculean  task  is  far  advanced  toward  completion,  and 
the  fruits  of  this  vast  labor  are  the  inheritance  of  the  new  century. 

Like  permanent  foundations  have  been  laid  in  many  other  ways. 
The  good  will  of  the  people  has  been  won ;  schools  have  been  organ- 
ized and  are  in  successful  operation;  churches  have  been  gathered 
and  are  in  training  under  native  pastors  for  an  increasing  share  in 
the  work ;  the  Bible,  wholly  or  in  parts,  has  been  translated  into  hun- 
dreds of  languages  or  dialects,  and  is  accessible  to  the  vast  majority  of 
the  unevangelized  peoples  of  the  earth;  text  books  for  schools  and  a 
Christian  literature  are  provided  in  large  measure,  to  aid  in  the 
development  of  the  Christian  body.  These  things  will  not  need  to 
be  done  again,  but  they  stand  ready  for  continued  and  more  effective 


244  CHRISTENDOM. 

use — the  splendid  apparatus  of  a  vigorous  and  world-wide  campaign. 
There  is  in  many  lands  a  strong,  well-trained  and  experienced  body 
of  missionaries,  surrounded  and  aided  by  seven  times  their  own  num- 
ber of  native  helpers,  prepared  to  take  advantage  of  all  these  vast 
facilities,  and  push  the  work  of  Christianizing  the  world  in  the  most 
energetic  and  effective  way.  We  have  already  observed  a  constant 
acceleration  in  the  rate  of  increase  in  the  positive  results  of  mission 
work;  and  we  have  every  reason  to  expect  that  this  rate  of  increase 
will  steadily  rise  throughout  the  coming  century.  Probably  in  no 
respect  is  the  progress  of  this  work  during  the  nineteenth  century 
more  marked  or  significant  than  in  the  accomplishment  of  all  this 
vast  preliminary  and  pioneer  work.  It  took  three  years  to  marshal 
and  train  the  armies  of  the  Union;  but  when  that  had  been  done, 
it  required  but  another  year  to  bring  the  war  to  a  victorious  end. 
But  the  progress  in  those  years  of  preparation  was  as  real  and  signi- 
ficant as  in  that  one  year  of  resistless  advance. 

But  even  the  nineteenth  century  has  recorded  signal  successes, 
foretastes  of  the  final  victory.  Witness  the  conversion  of  Tahiti,  of 
the  Society  Islands,  of  Samoa,  of  the  Friendly  Islands,  of  the  New 
Hebrides,  of  the  Sandwich  Islands  and  so  many  other  islands  of  the 
Pacific.  Recall,  also,  the  inspiring  progress  in  Madagascar  and 
Uganda,  among  the  Telugus  and  the  Karens,  in  Japan  and  in  the 
older  missions  in  China.  Enough  has  been  achieved  to  prove  the 
possibility  of  universal  success.  It  is  no  experiment  in  which  we 
are  engaged ;  it  is  a  supremely  successful  work.  There  are  no  back- 
ward steps  in  Christ's  march  down  the  centuries  and  across  the  na- 
tions to  universal  victory.  This  imposing  work,  with  its  impregna- 
ble foundations,  its  powerful  and  growing  array,  is  beyond  the  reach 
of  cavil  or  sneer,  is  confessedly  the  one  resistless,  triumphant  force 
in  the  enlightenment  of  the  nations  and  in  the  uplifting  of  the 
world.  We  do  not  now  celebrate  the  triumph,  but  we  are  on  the 
march;  every  foe  flees  before  us,  every  year  makes  the  cause  more 
resistless ;  and  the  end  is  both  certain  and  near  at  hand. 


ESSENTIAL  CHRISTIANITY. 


Eev.  William  D.  Grant,  Ph.D., 

NEW    YOKE. 

The  man  who  began  one  of  the  greatest  religious  movements  of 
modern  times,  John  Wesley,  said :  "I  want  life ;  I  am  tired  of  opin- 
ions." A  follower  of  Wesley,  however,  a  century  after,  not  only 
expresses  the  desire  that  Methodist  opinions  shall  be  sharply  defined 
and  tenaciously  adhered  to,  but  even  exclaims,  "Oh,  the  pity  of  it, 
that  John  Wesley  did  not  clearly  specify  the  cut  and  color  of  the 
coat  and  the  style  of  the  hat  to  be  worn  by  the  Methodists  for  all 
time  and  in  all  lands !"  So  much  smaller  was  the  disciple  than  the 
master.  Yet,  this  is  not  an  extreme  or  isolated  case;  it  is  only  an 
indication  of  what  has  taken  place  in  the  history  of  all  religions  and 
religious  movements.  Martin  Luther  did  not  lay  claim  to  the 
prophetic  office,  yet  he  uttered  no  word  that  has  proved  more  true 
than  "that  the  very  people  who  in  his  lifetime  would  not  touch  the 
kernel  of  his  teaching  would  be  greedy  after  the  husks  of  it  when  he 
was  once  dead."  That  every  fresh  stream  of  religious  influence 
should  be  purest  at  its  source  is  no  more  than  to  say  that  the  first 
ages  of  a  faith  must  exhibit  most  plainly  the  tendencies  and  charac- 
teristics of  the  system  when  the  emotions  are  stirred  rather  than 
the  intellect,  and  when  fervor  has  not  given  place  to  fonnalism  and 
machine-rule. 

The  history  of  institutions  and  systems  shows  that  they  have  not 
long  remained  in  the  original  simplicity  which  characterized  the 
purpose  of  their  founders,  and  which  satisfied  their  earliest  disciples. 
As  conceived  by  other  minds  less  capable  of  distinguishing  the  non- 
essential from  the  essential,  and  when  applied  in  other  circum- 
stances from  those  in  which  they  were  originally  introduced,  to  those 
who  are  observant,  soon  a  system,  however  divine  in  its  origin  and  in- 
tent, is  seen  to  indicate  accretions,  which,  like  the  barnacles  on  a 
ship,  may  require  heroic  measures  for  their  removal. 

But  if  the  system  is  of  Divine  appointment,  and,  like  Christianity 
when  first  introduced,  meets  the  deeper  needs  of  the  human  heart, 
we  may  believe,  when  it  has  departed  from  its  primary  purpose  and 

245 


246  CHRISTENDOM. 

purity,  God  will  take  pains  to  see  that  voices  shall  not  be  wanting — 
though  at  first  these  may  be  despised  and  discredited — to  summon 
men  to  apprehend  anew  the  simple  evangel  freed  from  the  mass  of 
dogmas  and  rites  which  have  hidden  it  from  view. 

Christianity,  though  divinely  given,  has,  no  more  than  other  re- 
ligious systems,  been  able  to  escape  the  corroding  influences  of  time ; 
human  ambition  and  lack  of  spiritual  insight  having  caused  de- 
terioration. It  is  no  depreciation  of  its  Divine  origin,  however,  that 
such  should  be  the  case.  The  waters  of  the  stream  take  their  color- 
ing from  the  soil  through  which  they  flow.  It  is  no  more  than  voic- 
ing history  to  say  that  with  the  outward  progress  of  Christianity  and 
ecclesiastical  development  corruption  has  kept  pace. 

That  the  essential  character  of  Christianity  changed  from  a  sys- 
tem of  religious  living  to  a  system  of  metaphysical  belief;  to  right 
thinking  rather  than  right  doing,  was  largely  due  to  the  influence 
of  Greek  thought,  human  reason,  philosophical  speculation,  and 
human  ambition.  Men  became  satisfied  with  belief  in  certain 
doctrines  instead  of  demanding  that  these  doctrines  should  be  real- 
ized in  their  action  and  intercourse  with  their  fellow-men;  satisfied 
with  accepting  certain  opinions  about  Christ  for  fellowship  with 
Christ  himself. 

It  is  the  unique  distinction  of  Christianity,  however,  that  it  can 
be  revived  and  largely  restated  without  altering  its  essential  char- 
acter. Such  has  been  the  task  of  all  true  reformers  from  Tauler  to 
Luther ;  from  Luther  to  Wesley,  and  from  Wesley  to  William  Booth. 
Because  true  Christianity  is  "spirit  and  life,"  it  possesses  an  inher- 
ent power  of  self-renewal,  a  reconstructive  vitality.  The  Reforma- 
tion of  the  sixteenth  century  was  such  a  revival  and  reconstruction; 
an  attempt,  in  a  measure  at  least,  to  return  to  the  simplicity  of  the 
Gospel,  to  be  satisfied  with  the  original  requirement  of  Jesus  Christ 
— personal  loyalty  to  Him.  It  was  the  mission  of  Luther  and  those 
associated  with  him  to  recall  men  from  the  hardened  dogmas  of  the 
church  to  the  living  experience  of  St.  Paul;  from  paganized  Chris- 
tianity to  Christianity  itself.  It  is  more  than  we  should  expect, 
however,  that  those  who  had  been  schooled  in  the  principles  of 
scholastic  theolog}'  could  instantly  and  in  every  particular  break 
away  from  the  traditions,  customs  and  authority  to  which  they  had 
been  so  long  subject.  While  individually  enjoying  the  peace  and 
freedom  of  the  Gospel,  yet  the  Reformers  permitted  much  to  remain 
in  their  reconstructed  system  of  doctrine  that  was  anti-Scriptural; 


ESSENTIAL    CHRISTIANITY.  247 

much  that  lacked  utility  and  which  became  a  standing  menace  to  the 
future  peace  and  progress  of  the  Evangelical  Church.  In  self-de- 
fence they  were  required  to  state  what  they  believed  and  why  they 
believed  it.  They  were,  in  a  sense,  compelled  to  place  a  new  set  of 
doctrines  over  against  those  from  which  they  disagreed.  Hence  it 
comes  to  pass  that  men  are  now  doing  what  should  have  been  done 
four  hundred  years  ago,  stripping  off  the  unessential  garb  of  eccle- 
siastical Christianity;  going  back  of  doctrinal  systems,  back  of 
councils,  confessions,  tradition,  the  fathers;  treating  all  such  prac- 
tically as  though  they  never  had  been;  going  back  to  Christ  Him- 
self, asking  themselves  and  asking  Him  what  was  His  mission; 
what  did  He  bring  to  and  do  for  man  that  man  could  not  have  done 
for  himself ;  and  what  must  we  do  in  order  that  He  may  regard  us  as 
His  disciples? 

In  pursuing  this  course  the  difficulty  has  always  been  to  deter- 
mine where  fundamentals  end  and  where  circumstantials  begin. 
Where  is  the  seat  of  authority  to  be  found  to  which  an  appeal  may 
be  taken  to  guide  us  in  the  settlement  of  such  a  difficult  problem? 
At  first,  in  attempting  to  settle  this  question,  many  will  insist  upon 
the  "belief  of  certain  opinions  as  being  necessary  to  salvation, 
though  these,  it  is  admitted,  must  be  strictly  confined  to  a  few 
essential  doctrines;  then  follows  an  earnest  effort,  comparatively 
easy  at  first,  but  always  more  painful  as  the  process  of  compression 
proceeds,  to  reduce  the  fundamentals  of  religion  to  the  lowest  pos- 
sible denomination.  This  involves,  as  you  will  observe,  the  neces- 
sity for  drawing  a  line  which  shall  separate  essential  opinions  on  the 
one  hand  from  non-essential  opinions  on  the  other;  a  line  which  in 
practice  it  is  found  impossible  to  keep  permanent  or  clear."  For 
instance,  a  man  who  at  one  period  of  his  life  draws  an  imaginary 
line,  say  at  the  doctrine  of  the  Bible's  infallibility,  may  afterward 
remove  it  to  some  special  form  of  opinion  respecting  the  divinity  of 
Christ. 

Now,  if  we  turn  to  the  Gospels  themselves  and  interrogate  them, 
we  will  find  that  Christ  gives  his  disciples  neither  creed,  liturgy,  nor 
rule  for  perfecting  an  ecclesiastical  organization.  He  defines  noth- 
ing; He  systematizes  nothing;  though  doubtless  there  are  in  the 
Bible  the  materials  for  the  science  of  theology,  as  there  are  in  the 
heavens  materials  for  the  science  of  astronomy,  but  He  did  not  com- 
bine them,  and  His  disciples,  in  doing  so,  have  been  far  from  in- 
fallible.    There  is  in  the  Bible,  however,  a  constant  insistence  upon 


248  CHRISTENDOM. 

clean  hands  and  a  pure  heart ;  a  forgiving  spirit ;  an  enthusiasm  for 
righteousness,  but  nowhere  are  you  asked  to  believe — in  order  to  be 
saved — a  proposition,  or  assent  to  formulated  opinion  regarding 
Christ  Himself.  The  reason  is  plain;  belief  of  dogma  respecting 
a  person  does  not  necessarily  bring  man  into  vital  union  with  that 
person,  while,  on  the  other  hand,  refusal  to  assent  to  this  or  that 
dogma  respecting  a  person  docs  not  necessarily  hinder  man  from 
entering  into  the  closest  and  most  blessed  fellowship  with  him.  The 
acceptance  of  theories  respecting  the  Son  of  God,  therefore,  are  not 
needful  in  order  to  fellowship  with  the  Son  of  God.  He  Himself 
is  the  life,  and  not  some  opinion  about  Him.  And,  fortunately, 
this  life  that  He  is  "cannot  be  patented,  or  shut  up  in  the  keeping  of 
any  ecclesiastical  corporation,  or  bench  of  bishops,  or  infallible 
Pope,  nor  can  it  be  squeezed  into  any  sacrament,  rite,  catechism  or 
creed."  For  agreement  in  doctrine,  at  best,  is  but  a  bond  of  union 
between  the  understandings  of  men,  while  agreement  in  affection  is 
union  between  the  souls  of  men;  and  this  is  the  essential  thing  in 
Christianity,  whether  man  thinks  of  his  relation  to  God  or  thinks  of 
his  relation  to  his  fellow-men.  To  maintain,  therefore,  that  Chris- 
tians must  think  alike  on  any  point,  save  self-evident  or  axiomatic 
truth,  is  as  absurd  as  to  maintain  that  they  must  think  alike  on  all 
points  without  exception. 

But  the  fellowship  of  the  church  is  a  fellowship  of  persons — not 
necessarily  agreeing  in  opinions — and  must  have  a  person  as  its 
ultimate  bond;  therefore  in  the  Gospels  the  person  of  Jesus  is  cen- 
tral and  not  some  fine-spun  theory  regarding  Him.  His  first  dis- 
ciples and  evangelists,  recognizing  this  fundamental  distinction,  be- 
came heralds  of  a  person  rather  than  the  framers  of  a  code  of  rules 
•for  the  regulation  of  conduct,  or  a  creed  for  the  regulation  of  faith. 
But  when  the  church,  degenerating,  could  no  longer  point  to  the  liv- 
ing epistle  and  say.  See,  here  is  Christianity,  in  its  impotency  and 
pride  the  church  pointed  to  its  doctrinal  deliverances,  saying,  See, 
this  is  what  we  believe  Christianity  to  be,  and  what,  if  you  are  to 
fellowship  with  us,  you,  too,  must  believe.  It  is  very  much  as  when 
the  Pope,  pointing  to  a  treasure  of  gold,  said  to  Thomas  Aquinas, 
"See,  Thomas,  the  church  of  to-day  can  no  longer  use  the  language 
of  St.  Peter,  'Silver  and  gold  have  I  none.'  "  "True,  your  holi- 
ness," Thomas  replied,  "but  neither  can  she  say,  'Else  up  and 
walk.' " 

Ever  since  Christianity  ceased  to  be  expressed  in  terms  of  life,  the 


ESSENTIAL    CHRISTIANITY.  249 

church  has  been  too  well  satisfied  with  assent  to  its  doctrines,  re- 
garding the  belief  of  such  as  tantamount  to  being  a  Christian. 

If  we  would  learn  what  essential  Christianity  is,  surely  it  cannot 
be  needful  to  go  to  the  Old  Testament  to  find  out,  for  Jesus  Christ 
at  once  embodied,  interpreted  and  exemplified  all  that  was  essential 
in  the  teachings  of  Moses,  and  the  prophets,  and  the  Psalms.  Nor 
is  it  needful  to  go  to  the  Acts  and  Epistles  of  the  New  Testament 
to  learn  the  essential  elements  of  Christianity,  for  these  do  no  more 
than  illustrate,  develop  and  apply  the  principles  latent  in  the  Gos- 
pels; at  best  they  are  secondary,  derivative  and  dependent.  St. 
Paul  differs  from  Christ  only  l)y  amplification,  illustration  and  ap- 
plication, not  by  addition,  much  less  by  opposition.  Much  less,  in 
order  to  learn  the  character  of  essential  Christianity,  do  we  need  to 
go  to  the  church  fathers,  to  the  councils,  or  to  the  creeds  and  con- 
fessions of  Christendom,  for  the  fathers  and  the  framers  of  the 
creeds  and  confessions  were  themselves  dependent  on  the  same 
sources,  whicli  lie  open  to  all  alike. 

I  assume  that  we  are  as  capable  Anno  Domini  1901  of  exam- 
ining and  determining  the  content  of  Christ's  teachings  as  the 
church  was  in  any  previous  period  of  Christian  history,  and  we  are 
fully  justified  in  returning  and  confining  ourselves  exclusively  to 
the  Gospels  themselves,  when  we  would  know  what  essential  Chris- 
tianity is.  Did  the  Gospels  constitute  the  whole  of  our  Bible,  could 
not  man  find  therein,  without  much  difficulty,  the  words  of  eternal 
life? — if  he  could  not,  then  the  teachings  of  the  Christ  are  fatally 
deficient.  Time  was  when  man  had  to  be  satisfied  with  a  very  much 
dimmer  measure  of  light  concerning  God  and  duty  than  has  been 
given  him  to-day.  What  body  of  doctrine,  do  you  suppose,  Abra- 
ham, Moses,  Isaiah,  Socrates,  Epictetus  or  Plato  adopted  ? 

It  is  highly  desirable,  of  course,  that  Christianity  should  be  stated 
historically,  doctrinally,  philosophically,  ecclesiastically,  experiment- 
ally, etc.,  especially  if  we  understand  that  the  thing  itself,  that 
whi^h  gives  value  and  meaning  to  history,  doctrine,  and  the  like, 
cannot  be  expressed  by  intellectual  formulas  or  syllogisms;  neither 
does  spiritual  truth  make  its  finest  conquests  by  the  force  of  logical 
processes,  nor  by  the  removal  of  intellectual  difficulties,  for  few  men 
receive  the  truth  simply  because  it  is  made  clear  and  commends 
itself  to  their  judgment  and  logical  understanding.  But  it  is  all- 
important  that  Christianity  should  be  stated,  too,  in  terms  of  life, 
as  when  introduced  it  was  exemplified  and  commended  by  a  life. 


250  CHRISTENDOM. 

"The  words  that  I  speak  unto  you,  they  are  spirit  and  they  are 
life" — ^not  limping  logic  or  a  cold  creed.  "He  that  hath  the 
Son  hath  the  life,  he  that  hath  not  the  Son  of  God  hath  not  the 
life." 

The  essential  and  distinguishing  feature  of  Christianity,  there- 
fore, is  life  in  Christ,  had  by  union,  and  fed  by  communion,  with 
Him ;  or,  in  other  words,  essential  Christianity  is  life  in  and  fellow- 
ship with  Jesus  Christ  in  spirit  and  purpose — the  reign  of  God  in 
the  human  soul,  commanding  the  conscience  and  the  will  because 
possessing  the  affections.  "In  the  strictest  sense  of  essential,"  says 
Coleridge,  "this  alone  is  the  essential  in  Christianity,  that  the  same 
spirit  should  be  growing  in  us  which  was  in  the  fulness  of  all  per- 
fection in  Jesus  Christ."  Whoever  is  thus  united  to  Jesus  Christ  is 
freed  from  and  superior  to  all  externalities;  creeds  may  crumble, 
the  Bible  become  discredited,  tlieologies  change,  good  men  differ, 
the  church  itself  degenerate;  he  is  disturbed  by  none  of  it;  he  is 
superior  to  all  of  it,  for  his  dependence  is  upon  Him  "who  is  the 
same  yesterday,  to-day  and  forever."  It  is  inevitable  that  theories 
and  opinions,  and  systems  and  views  should  change,  for  man — the 
growing  man,  in  view  point — is  ever  changing.  But  he  need  give 
himself  little  concern  about  the  curious  questions  of  the  intellect  to 
whom  all  the  vital  questions  of  the  heart  have  been  answered. 

We  are  of  Dr.  Parkhurst's  mind :  "I  am  not  making  light  of  creeds 
nor  belittling  orthodoxy,  but  all  that  creeds  and  orthodoxy  are  worth 
is  in  what  they  can  do  toward  making  a  man  to  be  in  his  heart  what 
Christ  was  in  His  heart,  and  if  they  are  that,  I  don't  care  whether 
they  get  it  by  being  orthodox  or  by  being  heterodox,  by  being 
Lutherans  or  Wesleyans,  by  being  Calvinists  or  heretics.  The  best 
doctrine  is  that  which  does  most  to  make  men  God-like,  and  the 
best  denomination  is  the  one  that  will  graduate  the  finest  saints  and 
the  most  of  them." 

But  how  does  the  soul  enter  into  this  secret  place  of  the  Most 
High  ?  Surely,  neither  subscription  to  Christian  creeds,  acceptance 
of  doctrinal  standards,  nor  agreement  with  theological  systems  is 
needful,  when  fellowship  with  a  person  is  the  question  at  issue. 
Besides,  were  there  not  those  who  enjoyed  the  unspeakable  boon  of 
fellowship  with  Jesus — spirit  to  spirit  and  heart  to  heart — before 
the  creeds  and  the  systems  and  the  standards  of  the  Christian  faith 
were  thought  of?  What  a  man  may  know  and  believe,  and  what  a 
man  must  know  and  believe,  in  order  to  enter  into  life  in  Christ, 


ESSENTIAL    CHRISTIANITY.  251 

may  be  as  wide  apart  as  the  intellect  of  a  Newton  and  that  of  a 
Hottentot.  It  is  not  absolutely  needful — it  is  not  needful  at  all — 
that  man  should  believe,  know,  and  acknowledge  certain  well-de- 
fined doctrines  in  order  that  he  may  enjoy  any  benefits  which  flow 
from  them;  just  as  a  man  may  hold  erroneous  views  regarding  the 
sun's  relation  to  our  planet  and  yet  enjoy  all  the  benefits  of  sun- 
light. It  is  not  needful  to  discuss  the  whole  science  of  botany  that 
you  may  win  the  admiration  of  your  neighbor  to  the  beauty  and 
fragrance  of  your  rose-bush.  Jesus  Christ  said  a  good  many  things 
in  His  teaching  that  are  pertinent  here — and  we  are  trying  to  con- 
fine our  discussion  strictly  to  the  teaching  of  the  Gospels.  It  was  of 
little  children  that  Jesus  said,  "Of  such  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven," 
and  "Whosoever  shall  not  receive  the  kingdom  of  God  as  a  little 
child,  he  shall  not  enter  therein."  And  again,  "I  thank  Thee,  0, 
Father,  because  Thou  hast  hid  these  things  from  the  wise  and  pru- 
dent and  hast  revealed  them  unto  babes."  It  is  said  a  Chinaman 
who  had  applied  for  membership  in  a  Christian  church  was  put 
back  on  the  ground  that  he  had  not  sufficient  knowledge  of  the  faith 
to  be  received.  He  was  among  the  number  seized  by  the  Boxers, 
and  technically  might  have  been  justified  in  denying  that  he  was 
"one  of  them,"  but  when  he  was  questioned  with  a  sword  at  his 
throat,  he  boldly  answered :  "Yes,  I  am  a  Christian."  To  his  sur- 
prise, he  was  allowed  to  escape.  It  is  worthy  of  note  that  the  man 
who  had  not  enough  knowledge  to  be  a  member  of  the  church  had 
enough  courage  and  fidelity  to  be  a  martyr. 

All  of  which  goes  to  show,  conclusively,  that  the  amount  of 
knowledge  of  the  Christian  faith  needful,  on  the  part  of  one  who 
would  enter  into  vital  union  with  the  Son  of  God,  is  not  so  great  as 
to  afford  him  alarm  or  keep  him  waiting.  How  much,  think  you, 
did  the  man  referred  to  in  John  ix  know  about  Jesus  Christ  when 
he  believed  and  worshipped  Him  ? 

"It  will  be  proper,  then,  to  say,"  to  quote  Dr.  Parkhurst  again, 
"that  the  thing  Christianity  is  here  to  do  is  to  make  men  right  in 
their  feelings.  It  may  not  always  make  people  wise;  it  may  not 
give  them  correct  understanding  of  things,  nor  attempt  to.  That 
quality  of  heart  that  Christianity  aims  to  induce  is  something  that 
correct  understanding  has  almost  nothing  to  do  with.  We  know 
how  much  a  child  can  love  his  mother  without  understanding  his 
mother,  without  having  ever  in  any  way  thought  nicely  and  accu- 
rately about  her.     Indeed,  it  is  his  love  for  her  that  helps  him  to 


252  CHRISTENDOM. 

understand  her  a  great  deal  more  than  it  is  his  understanding  of  her 
that  makes  him  love  her." 

But  it  may  be  replied  to  the  foregoing  statement  of  essential 
Christianity  that  such  a  weak  and  emasculated  system  might  do  very 
well  in  the  imagination  and  for  the  kindergarten,  but  it  would  never 
endure  being  brought  out  into  open  day;  so  what  is  the  use  of  dis- 
cussing a  theory  that  can  have  no  practical  value  ? 

I  have  been  attempting  to  present  neither  a  system  nor  a  theory, 
but  a  statement  of  fact.  It  may  not  be  known  to  some  people  that 
in  Neuchatel  and  Geneva,  Switzerland,  as  shown  in  Professor  Vin- 
cent's paper  on  "Switzerland,"  the  responsibility  for  doctrine  rests 
entirely  upon  the  conscience  of  the  minister.  The  constitutions 
declare  that  "the  liberty  of  the  conscience  of  the  ecclesiastic  is  in- 
violable; it  shall  be  restricted  neither  by  regulations,  nor  by  oaths, 
nor  by  engagements,  nor  by  disciplinary  punishments,  nor  by  the 
articles  of  a  creed,  nor  by  any  other  measure  whatever."  In  the 
city  of  Calvin,  Geneva,  "every  pastor  teaches  and  preaches  freely 
upon  his  own  responsibility;  this  liberty  shaU  be  restricted  neither 
by  confessions  of  faith  nor  by  forms  of  liturgy." 

It  would  seem,  therefore,  that,  measurably,  essential  Christianity 
is  more  than  an  emasculated  creation  of  the  fancy  in  Switzerland. 
"It  is  certainly  not  true,"  as  some  one  has  said,  "that  to  fix  the  mind 
upon  the  central  objects  of  faith — God,  Christ,  love,  truth — instead 
of  on  the  Thirty-nine  Articles,  or  the  Westminster  Confession,  or  the 
canons  of  the  Council  of  Dort,  or  other  denominational  standards, 
makes  religion  weak  and  flaccid.  The  experience  of  many,  if  not  of 
the  most,  of  the  greatest  minds,  has  been  that  they  have  tended,  as 
life  goes  on,  to  think  more  of  the  former  and  less  of  the  latter.  I 
appeal  to  the  experience  of  Eichard  Baxi:er,  than  whom  no  one  was 
more  qualified  to  speak,  having  lived  through  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury and  taken  a  prominent  part  in  all  its  disputes.  'In  my  youth,' 
he  says,  'I  was  quickly  past  my  fundamentals,  and  was  running  tip 
into  a  multitude  of  controversies  and  curiosities.  But  the  older  I 
grew,  the  smaller  stress  I  laid  upon  these  controversies  and  curiosi- 
ties, as  finding  far  greater  uncertainties  in  them  than  I  at  first  dis- 
covered, and  finding  less  usefulness,  comparatively,  even  where  there 
is  the  greatest  certainty.  And  now  I  value  most  highly  and  find 
most  useful  for  myself  and  others  the  Apostles'  Creed,  the  Lord's 
Praj'er,  and  the  Ten  Commandments ;  they  arc  to  me  my  daily 
bread  and  drink,  and  I  can  speak  and  write  of  them  over  and  over 


ESSENTIAL    CHRISTIANITY.  253 

again,  so  I  would  rather  read  and  hear  of  them  than  of  any  of  the 
school  niceties  which  once  so  pleased  me.'  And  thus  I  observe  that 
it  was  with  old  Bishop  Usher  and  with  many  other  men.  I  be- 
lieve that  the  tendency  described  by  Baxter  is  that  of  our  own  age. 
The  great  central  truths  of  religion  are  being  made  the  objects  of 
thought  and  faith." 

In  saying  that  life  in  and  union  with  Christ  is  essential  Chris- 
tianity, we  are  reminded  that  life  alone  is  the  creative  power.  Life 
is  the  originating,  organizing  and  unifying  principle  in  the  organic 
sphere.  Given  life — "the  spirit  of  life  in  Christ  Jesus" — and  you 
may  have  a  Paul,  an  Augustine,  a  Savonarola,  an  Assisi,  a  Neander, 
a  Fenelon,  a  Channing,  a  Spurgeon,  a  Martineau,  a  Whittier,  a 
Brooks,  a  Wesley,  or  a  Moody;  men  too  large  to  be  bound  by  any 
system  of  doctrine.  And  as  each  of  several  cities  of  Greece  would 
fain  have  claimed  Homer  for  its  citizen,  so  each  denomination  would 
fain  claim  the  right  to  call  these  Christian  saints  its  own.  The 
relation  which  these  men  sustained  to  one  system  of  doctrine  rather 
than  to  another  was  mainly  accidental.  Given  the  same  men  and 
the  same  spirit  of  life,  and  you  would  have  had  the  same  results 
under  any  system;  that  is  to  say,  identification  with  a  particular 
system  of  doctrine  did  not  make  them  what  they  were — it  was  "the 
spirit  of  life  in  Christ  Jesus."  This  spirit  was  common  to  them 
all  alike — Roman  Catholic,  Protestant,  Unitarian.  They  claimed 
kinship  with  all  men  and  have  their  reward  in  all  men  wishing  to 
claim  kinship  with  them.  "The  weakest  part  of  every  man's  creed 
is  that  which  he  holds  alone,  the  strongest  part  is  that  which  he 
holds  in  coinmon  with  the  whole  of  Christendom." 

To  him  who  is  looking  for  metaphysical  subtlety,  doctrinal  com- 
pleteness, ecclesiastical  impressiveness,  or  aesthetic  attractiveness, 
the  statement  of  Christianity  just  made  may  seem  radically  defec- 
tive. But  he  must  remember  we  have  been  trying  to  present  essen- 
tial Christianity,  "spirit  and  life,"  that  which  gives  to  all  forms  and 
rites  their  significance,  and  without  which  they  are  of  little  avail. 

Is  this,  then,  to  be  the  issue  of  all  that  our  fathers  fought  for  in 
bygone  theological  conflicts  ?  Are  all  their  labors  to  go  for  naught  ? 
Far  from  it ;  our  position  and  outlook  to-day  is  due  to  the  battle  for 
truth,  as  they  saw  it,  which  they  so  courageously  waged.  Their  re- 
ward is  in  the  advanced  position  which  we  to-day  are  enabled  to 
occupy.  Jesus  Christ  Himself  was  the  issue,  the  fulfilment  of  the 
incompleteness  of  Judaism  as  a  religious  system,  as  a  finality. 


254:  CHRISTENDOM. 

O,   friends,    with   whom   my    feet   have   trod 

The  quiet  aisles  of  prayer, 
Glad  witness  to  your  zeal  for  God 

And  love  of  men  I  bear. 

I  trace  your  lines  of  argument ; 

Your  logic,   linked  and  strong, 
I  weigh  as  one  who  dreads  dissent. 

And  fears  a  doubt  as  wrong. 

But  still  my  human  hands  are  weak 

To  hold  your  iron  creeds; 
Against  the  words  ye  bid  me  speak. 

My  heart  within  me  pleads. 

Who  fathoms  the  Eternal  Thought? 

Who  talks  of  scheme  and  plan? 
The  Lord  is  God  !     He  needeth  not 

The  poor  device  of  man. 

I   walk  with   bare,   hushed  feet   the  ground 

Ye  tread  with  boldness  shod ; 
I  dare  not  fix  with  mete  and  bound 

The  love  and  power  of  God. 

O,  brothers,  if  my  faith  is  vain. 

If  hopes  like  these  betray, 
I'ray  for  me,  that  my  feet  may  gain 

The  sure  and  safer  way. 

And  Thou,  O  Lord,  by  whom  are  seen 

Thy  creatures  as  they  be. 
Forgive  me  if  too  close  I  lean 

My  human  heart  on  Thee ! 

— Whittieb. 


THE  COMPARISON  OF  CHRISTIANITY 
WITH  OTHER  RELIGIONS. 


Professor  Allan  Menzies^  D.D., 

SCOTLAND. 

[Even  those  who  shrink  from  any  such  notion  as  that  the  religious  histoi*y 
of  the  world  is  the  expression  of  a  natural  process  of  development,  are  not 
thereby  precluded  from  recognizing  in  the  earlier  stages  of  that  history  a 
preparation  and  a  propaedeutic  for  the  more  advanced.  Though  there  is  an 
essential  relation  between  Christianity  and  the  pre-Christian  religions,  yet 
we  cannot  admit  that  the  former  is  merely  a  combination  of  Jewish  and 
heathen  elements.  If  there  are  in  the  pre-Christian  religions  the  germs  of 
conceptions  of  God,  and  of  His  relations  to  the  world,  we  find  at  once  their 
unity  and  their  explanation  in  our  Christian  faith.  What  the  great  mono- 
theistic and  pantheistic  faiths  of  the  ancient  world  were  feeling  after  they 
failed  to  reach,  because,  apart  from  other  reasons,  their  attempted  solution 
of  the  problem  of  religion  was  in  each  case  one-sided  and  fragmentary — the 
element  of  truth  which  each  contained  being  rendered  false  because  held  in 
isolation  from  that  which  is  its  necessary  complement.  In  other  words,  mono- 
theistic religions  are  imperfect  because  they  exclude  the  pantheistic  element, 
pantheistic  religions  because  they  lack  the  monotheistic  element.  It  lends  a 
new  force  to  our  appreciation  of  the  nature  and  spiritual  value  of  the  Chris- 
tian faith  if  we  can  discern  in  it  that  which  at  once  comprehends  and  tran- 
scends these  earlier  religions,  embracing  what  is  true,  and  supplying  a  com- 
plement of  what  is  imperfect,  and  the  corrective  of  what  is  false  in  both. 

Whilst,  therefore,  we  may  hold  that  Christianity  is  neither  a  reproduction 
uor  a  natural  development  of  the  imperfect  notions  of  God  in  which  the 
religious  aspirations  of  the  Old  World  embodied  themselves,  it  is  possible  at 
the  same  time  to  maintain  that  the  study  of  the  old  religions  sheds  new 
light  on  the  Christian  religion,  and  gives  to  it  a  new  and  deeper  sense  of  its 
spiritual  significance  and  power. — "The  Faiths  of  the  World,"  pp.  2,  3. — Ed.] 


How  CAN  we  profitably  compare  Christianity  with  other  reli- 
gions ? 

The  question  is  one  which  is  constantly  occurring  to  us ;  and  the 
answer  to  it  is  not  quite  obvious.  It  is  easy  enough,  indeed,  if  we 
can  still  intrench  ourselves  in  the  position  that  our  religion  is  the 
only  true  one,  and  that  all  the  others  are  false  religions  and  doctrines 
of  demons.  But  this  few  can  do ;  and  if  this  plan  is  abandoned,  how 
are  we  to  proceed  ? 

255 


256  CHRISTENDOM. 

The  missionary  naturally  wishes  to  compare  the  Christian  Gospel 
which  he  bears  to  other  lands  with  the  faith  he  finds  prevailing  in 
them,  and  if  he  is  a  good  missionary,  and  loves  truth  and  justice,  he 
desires  to  carry  out  his  comparison  in  the  right  way  and  to  reach  a 
result  which  can  defend  itself  at  the  bar  of  reason,  where  Jews  and 
Buddhists  and  Cliinese  are  judges  as  well  as  Christians. 

And  those  who  send  missionaries  abroad  are  also  under  a  moral 
obligation  to  understand  what  they  are  doing  when  they  seek  to  sub- 
stitute Christianity  for  the  indigenous  religions  of  distant  lands. 
We  do  not  now  believe  that  the  heathen  are  perishing,  so  many  hun- 
dreds of  them  every  hour,  because  they  do  not  know  Christ.  But  if 
this  motive  for  missions  is  defunct,  we  do  not,  therefore,  give  up  our 
missionary  enterprises;  no  earnest  Christian  can  think  of  such  a 
policy.  We  must  seek  to  approve  ourselves  in  a  new  way,  worthy 
of  the  knowledge  of  the  age  we  live  in,  that  Christ  is  the  desire  of 
all  nations,  and  that  it  is  not  only  love  of  our  own  creed,  but  love  of 
mankind,  that  prompts  us  to  bring  all  men  to  Him. 

The  question  is  a  pressing  one  for  missionaries  and  for  missionary 
societies.  But  it  is  urgent  for  all  who  wish  to  occupy  a  satisfactory 
position  in  their  own  minds.  If  we  are  Christians  at  all,  we  most 
wish  to  know  that  in  being  Christians,  and  not  Mohammedans  or 
pagans  or  followers  of  Confucius,  we  are  in  the  right  position.  The 
doctrine  has  been  very  much  preached  of  late  that  every  religion 
bears  truth  in  it,  and  that  it  is  good,  first  of  all,  that  a  man  should 
be  true  to  that  religion  which  he  professes.  We  have  also  heard  it 
much  insisted  on  that  all  religions  are,  at  the  root  of  the  matter,  one, 
and  that  God  is  present  in  them  all,  that  they  may  all  save  if 
heartily  believed  and  faithfully  obeyed.  No  doubt  there  is  much 
truth  in  these  contentions ;  but  on  the  other  hand,  if  all  religions  are 
true,  then  how,  we  cannot  help  asking,  is  one  of  them  better  than 
another,  and  what  does  it  matter  to  which  of  them  any  man  belongs  ? 
The  popular  science  of  religion  has  brought  home  to  us  these  per- 
plexities, and  it  is  only  by  the  comparison  of  the  various  religions 
together  that  we  can  hope  to  unravel  them  and  to  arrive  at  some 
clearness  on  a  great  and  important  subject.  Most  men  who  have 
ever  thought  of  the  matter  at  all  believe  that  Christianity  is  the  best 
religion,  but  few  can  prove  it  or  define  how  the  religion  of  Christ  is 
the  best.  And  so  not  only  is  oi:r  missionary  practice  vague  and  con- 
fused, but  we  want,  to  a  lamentable  degree,  the  clear  and  enthusiastic 
conviction  which  ought  to  inspire  us  in  our  personal  and  social  at- 


RELIGIONS    CONTRASTED.  257 

tachment  to  Christ.  What,  then,  we  ask  again,  is  the  right  and 
proper  way  to  compare  our  great  religion,  say  Christianity,  with 
another  ? 

That  there  are  many  wrong  ways  of  making  such  a  comparison 
few,  perhaps,  will  deny.  It  is  not  fair  to  compare  a  lofty  and  pure 
example  of  our  religion  with  a  degenerate  and  unworthy  example 
of  another,  say  the  Christianity  of  the  Protestant  lands  in  this  cen- 
tury with  the  decadent  Hindooism  now  to  be  seen  in  India,  or  with 
Buddhism  as  now  found  in  China.  If  the  comparison  is  to  be  done 
by  samples,  then  the  flower  of  each  religion  must  be  taken,  or  the 
average  product,  if  it  can  be  obtained,  and  the  abuses  of  wlrieh  each 
is  capable,  the  mischief  to  which  it  is  apt  to  give  rise,  must  also  be 
taken  into  the  account.  The  missionary,  who  requires  to  make  up 
his  mind  without  any  long  delay,  must  judge  by  samples.  He  will 
naturally  compare  what  he  brings  with  him  with  what  meets  his  eye 
and  ear  when  he  lands  on  the  foreign  shore.  But  on  reflection  he 
will  see  that  the  idolatrous  Buddhism  of  China  is  not  true  Buddhism, 
and  that  the  barbarities  of  modern  Hindooism  do  not  belong  to  the 
essential  faith  of  India,  any  more  than  the  superstitions  of  Italian 
villages  are  to  be  laid  to  the  charge  of  essential  Christianity.  The 
good  missionary,  when  he  sees  that  the  heathen  he  is  dealing  with 
are  not  acting  up  to  the  true  spirit  of  their  own  religion,  will  tell 
them  so;  he  will  remember  that  Christian  cities  also  have  their 
slums;  that  Christian  peoples  also  are  apt  to  give  way  to  material- 
ism of  thought  and  action,  that  cruelty  and  strife,  that  superstition 
and  fanaticism,  that  disobedience  to  the  teaching  of  religion  are  not 
unknown  to  Christian*  lands. 

If  the  missionary  must  act  there,  so  must  the  Christian  at  home, 
who  is  not  bound  to  make  up  his  mind  on  the  subject  at  once,  but 
has  time  to  think  of  the  best  way  of  arriving  at  the  truth.  If  we  are 
to  compare  religion  by  the  samples  we  meet  with  of  their  respective 
fruits,  we  must  take  care  that  the  samples  we  employ  are  really  rep- 
resentative and  well  chosen.  We  must  not  judge  of  the  heathen 
religions  by  the  samples  we  happen  to  meet  with  in  conversation  or 
in  the  newspapers,  or  even  in  missionary  reports.  We  must  compare 
the  best  fruits  of  one  religion  with  the  best  fruits  of  the  other,  and 
no  doubt  also  the  worst  with  the  worst,  and  must  avoid  the  appear- 
ance of  judging  the  religion  of  the  heathen  by  one  standard  and  our 
own  by  another. 

All  this  shows  us  that  a  religion  which  is  believed  in  by  multitudes 


258  CHRISTENDOM. 

of  men  is  a  thing  with  many  sides  which  it  is  by  no  means  easy  to 
sum  up  in  a  single  statement  for  the  purpose  of  comparison.  Who 
will  draw  up  the  character  of  Christianity  in  such  a  way  as  to  em- 
brace all  its  legitimate  existing  forms,  not  to  speak  of  its  aberra- 
tions and  abuses?  Who  will  define  Christianity  in  such  a  way  as 
to  embrace  in  his  definition  both  the  Roman  Catholic  and  the  Prot- 
estant form  of  the  faith,  both  the  religion  of  the  Unitarian  and  that 
of  the  Anglican,  to  say  notliing  of  the  faith  of  the  negro  or  the  Scot- 
tish highlander  ?  And  then  we  have  to  remember  how  much  Chris- 
tianity has  altered  with  the  centuries.  Like  everything  that  has  life 
it  has  had  its  periods,  on  the  one  hand,  of  vigor  and  expansion,  and 
on  the  other  of  contraction  and  decay.  What  is  true  of  it  in  one  age 
may  have  been  untrue  of  it  in  the  preceding  age,  and  in  the  next 
age  may  again  cease  to  apply  to  it.  If  we  are  to  compare  Chris- 
tianity, then,  with  other  religions,  it  may  well  be  asked,  What  Chris- 
tianity? The  average  faith  and  life  of  all  Christians?  But  who 
can  possibly  define  what  these  are?  Is  it  the  original  faith  of  the 
Master  and  the  Apostles  ?  But  to  multitudes  of  Christians  that  con- 
stitutes a  very  meagre  portion,  as  they  think,  of  what  they  profess. 
Is  it  the  ultimate  purified  Christianity  aspired  after  by  the  pious 
and  the  thoughtful  ?  But  where,  we  may  ask  again,  is  this  religion 
to  be  found,  and  how  many  will  agree  in  such  a  description  of  it  ? 

And  what  is  thus  true  of  Christianity  is  true  of  other  religions 
also.  True,  the  differences  r.ve  less  with  them;  none  of  them  has 
put  forth  so  many  and  so  various  forms  of  creed  and  worship  as  it 
has.  Yet  with  them,  also,  the  forms  and  manifestations  in  different 
countries  and  ages  are  so  manifold  as  to  make  it  very  hard  to  state 
the*  essence  of  the  religion  in  a.  form  suited  for  the  purpose  of  com- 
parison. Who  can  define  what  is  common  to  all  the  branches  of 
Buddhism,  north  and  south,  at  the  present  day  ?  Even  Mohamme- 
danism, with  its  short  creed  and  simple  practice,  covers  with  its 
name  on  the  one  hand  whole  forests  of  primitive  superstition,  and 
on  the  other  systems  of  advanced  speculation  in  which  the  practical 
purposes  of  religion  are  to  a  largo  extent  lost  sight  of.  And  what 
unity  can  be  predicated  of  the  Hindoo  religion,  with  its  rapidly  suc- 
ceeding generations  of  new  gods,  its  old  gods  changed  beyond  recog- 
nition from  the  appearance  of  their  vigorous  youth ;  its  monasticism, 
its  mystical  speculation? 

It  appears,  indeed,  as  if  the  multiplicity  of  forms  which  is  found 
in  every  great  religion  must  forbid  any  effective  comparison  of  one 


RELIGIONS    CONTRASTED.  259 

of  them  with  another.  What  comparison  can  there  be  between 
systems  which  have  so  little  internal  unity?  We  can  compare  a 
sample  of  one  with  a  sample  of  another,  or  a  whole  set  of  samples  of 
each ;  but  this  method  can  never  be  satisfactory  unless  it  goes  all  the 
way,  and  sets  the  whole  history  and  the  whole  present  condition  of 
each  religion  side  by  side  with  that  of  the  other.  The  comparison 
of  religion  by  samples  leads,  in  fact,  to  the  demand  for  an  exhaustive 
and  complete  statement  of  each.  The  only  satisfactory  comparison 
of  religions  in  their  outward  features  lies  in  their  history.  This  the 
>=icience  of  religion  has  clearly  acknowledged  at  the  present  day  hy 
the  titles  it  has  adopted.  Students  of  religion  do  not  now  call  their 
works  by  the  name  of  "Comparative  Religion";  they  call  them  the 
"History  of  Religion,"  a  change  of  title  which  implies,  along  with 
other  things,  that  in  order  to  understand  the  relation  to  each  other  of 
the  various  religions  of  the  earth,  it  is  necessary  to  study  each  of 
them  thoroughly,  and  to  trace  to  their  root  in  the  far  past  the  vari- 
ous manifestations  each  of  them  exhibits. 

And  along  with  the  historical  methods  the  statistical  has  to  be 
mentioned.  To  compare  two  great  religions  is  as  if  we  should  under- 
take to  compare  the  Atlantic  and  the  Pacific  oceans.  That  could 
only  be  done  by  the  aid  of  maps  and  of  tables  of  figures,  in  which  all 
the  main  facts  of  each,  so  far  as  they  admit  of  exact  statement, 
should  be  set  forth.  Id  the  case  of  a  religion  also,  after  we  have 
studied  its  history,  and  seen  how  each  of  its  modern  developments  is 
related  to  its  primary  form,  and  how  the  differences  in  its  form 
arose,  we  can  proceed  to  count  and  measure  what  in  it  admits  of  such 
processes. 

The  number  of  adherents  in  each  country  can  be  given,  and  the 
total  number  of  adherents,  its  geographical  distribution,  the  dates 
of  its  festivals  can  be  given,  its  places  of  pilgrimage  can  be  stated, 
the  arrangement  of  its  temples.  The  statistics  of  the  world's  re- 
ligions are  of  great  interest,  and  in  any  complete  statement  are,  of 
course,  essential,  and  they  afford  standards  of  comparison  which  can 
be  readily  applied. 

Yet  at  the  same  time  it  cannot  be  denied  that  one  may  know  a 
good  many  statistical  facts  about  two  religions  without  being  able 
to  institute  any  effective  comparison  of  them;  neither  history  nor 
statistics  will  avail  for  this,  in  the  absence  of  insight  into  their 
genius  and  character.  We  may  know  all  about  their  history  and 
may  have  command  of  the  facts  of  their  present  condition,  and  yet 


260  CHRISTENDOM. 

be  very  far  from  knowing  what,  after  all,  is  most  important  and  in- 
teresting, i.  e.,  their  comparative  value  for  the  human  spirit  and  for 
human  society.  This,  every  one  will  acknowledge,  is  the  central  part 
of  our  problem.  The  comparison  of  religions  means,  first  of  all,  the 
comparison  of  their  respective  characters.  How  do  they  compare 
together  with  respect  to  the  yoke  they  impose  on  their  adherents,  and 
the  inspiration  they  afford;  with  respect  to  the  action  they  bring  to 
bear  on  individual  character,  or  the  family,  or  the  state?  This 
surely  is  the  question. 

And  when  w^  attempt  to  compare  religions  from  this  point  of 
view,  as  instruments  of  human  welfare  and  advancement,  we  find 
that  science  does  not  refuse  its  aid.  There  are  two  methods  by 
which  the  ethical  values  of  religions  may  be  compared.  There  is,  in 
the  first  place,  the  consideration  of  the  outward  form  of  different 
faiths,  and  of  the  place  in  the  general  development  of  religion  which 
the  outward  form  of  each  shows  it  to  hold.  In  the  second  place, 
there  is  the  method,  less  capable,  perhaps,  than  the  other,  of  strict 
scientific  application,  and  more  liable  to  be  misdirected  by  subjunc- 
tive bias,  but  still  legitimate  and  necessary,  viz. :  the  comparison  of 
religions  according  to  the  central  principle  or  idea  which  they  em- 
body. The  former  method  may  be  called  the  morphological;  it 
judges  religions  according  to  their  structure,  and  it  will  be  found 
to  grow  less  applicable  as  we  advance  to  the  higher  stages  of  religious 
growth.  The  second  may  be  called  the  moral,  or  practical,  method; 
it  judges  religions  according  to  the  end  and  aim  they  set  before 
believers. 

The  Morphological  Method  of  Comparing  Religions. — The  student 
of  the  social  arrangements  of  mankind  can  arrange  the  various  types 
of  society  in  which  men  have  lived  together  in  some  sort  of  a  scale, 
which  rises  from  the  lowest  social  or  unsocial  state  of  man  and 
ascends  to  the  most  highly  organized,  the  best  governed,  the  most 
refined  communities.  To  name  some  of  the  principal  steps,  the 
nomadic  condition  is  succeeded,  in  the  case  of  our  own  ancestors,  by 
that  of  settled  pastoral  life,  and  that  again  by  the  agricultural. 
Then  comes  the  life  of  towns  and  cities,  with  their  advancing  in- 
dustries, 'hoir  ever-increasing  division  of  labor;  their  arts,  their 
new  social  distinctions.  Or,  again,  the  system  of  slavery  gives  way 
to  feudalism,  and  feudalism  in  turn  to  the  democratic  state,  in 
which  all  arc  equal  before  the  law.  With  such  a  scale  of  develop- 
ment before  him  the  student  can  readily  assign  to  its  proper  place 


RELIGIONS    CONTRASTED.  261 

in  human  progress  any  society  he  is  examining;  and  thus  he  is  in 
possession  of  an  objective  standard  by  which  to  compare  different 
societies  together  with  precision.  A  more  familiar  instance  of  this 
procedure  is  that  of  biology,  where  the  structure  of  a  plant  or  animal 
at  once  locates  it  in  the  scale  of  the  development  of  living  organisms. 

In  the  case  of  religion  also  this  procedure  may  be  applied.  Hu- 
man religion  also  has  developed  and  has  passed  through  various 
well-marked  phases  on  its  way  toward  its  higher  and  its  liighest 
forms.  It  is  true  that  no  single  religion  exhibits  the  whole  of  the 
development  of  man's  relations  with  God.  It  is  religion  as  a  whole 
that  develops,  not  merely  this  or  that  particular  religion.  It  often 
happens  that  a  particular  religion  falls  back  to  a  lower  stage,  but 
the  religious  growth  of  mankind  is  not  thereby  arrested.  Now,  if 
we  can  make  out  what  the  steps  are  by  which  religion,  advances  from 
its  earlier  to  its  higher  forms,  then  we  have  a  standard  by  which  it 
is  possible  for  us  to  assign  to  any  given  faith  its  proper  place  in  the 
scale  of  human  religion  as  a  whole.  And  this  can  to  a  certain  ex- 
tent be  done. 

What  are  the  steps  by  which  mankind  has  advanced,  and  is  ad- 
vancing always,  to  a  worthier  faith  ?  That  question  is  carefully  an- 
swered in  the  Gifford  lectures  of  Professor  Tiele,  in  "The  Elements 
of  the  Science  of  Religion,"  Vol.  I,  "Morphological."  It  has  also 
been  answered,  though  never  quite  so  systematically,  by  other  writ- 
ers. The  result  of  the  inquiry  may  be  briefly  summed  up  as  fol- 
lows :  The  lowest  stage  of  religion — whether  or  not  it  is  always  the 
first  in  time,  we  need  not  here  consider — is  that  of  Animism.  Here 
men  believe  in  the  existence  of  numerous  spirits ;  whether  spirits  of 
ancestors  or  not,  spirits  at  any  rate  without  organization  or  fixity  or 
definiteness.  Where  such  beings  are  believed  in,  the  service  of  the 
unseen  objects  of  devotion  is  apt  to  be  in  the  form  of  magic  rather 
than  of  anything  that  we  call  worship.  Charms  and  spells  are 
sought  after,  by  which  the  spirits  may  be  kept  at  a  distance  from 
man,  or  may  be  compelled  to  do  his  bidding.  Religious  acts  are 
occasional  rather  than  stated  or  regular  in  their  nature.  Human 
life  is  at  the  mercy  of  capricious  beings,  and  every  kind  of  device  is 
resorted  to  with  a  view  to  som.e  small  security.  Of  tliis  lowest  re- 
ligion, many  a  survival,  or,  to  use  a  word  which  is  often  abused  in 
its  strictly  correct  application,  many  a  superstition,  is  to  be  found 
even  among  the  most  civilized  people  and  in  the  presence  of  lofty  and 
pure  faith,  with  which  it  is  in  reality  quite  incompatible. 


362  CHRISTENDOM. 

This  religious  stage,  however,  is  succeeded  by  that  higher  one  in 
which  the  gods  acquire  fixed  character  and  came  to  receive  a  stated 
and  regular  worship.  There  is  a  settled  place  in  which  the  god 
resides,  and  where  he  is  to  be  approached,  and  he  comes  to  have  a 
definite  clientele  of  worshippers,  who  approach  him  in  a  customary 
method  of  service  at  fixed  intervals.  These  gods  are  at  first  very 
numerous ;  each  tribe  will  have  its  god,  if  not  each  family.  It  is  by 
no  means  an  exaggeration  when  the  prophet  says :  "According  to 
thy  cities  are  thy  gods,  0  Israel." 

It  is  a  further  step  when,  out  of  the  multitude  of  petty  local 
deities,  the  great  gods  by  degrees  lift  up  their  heads ;  gods  who  are 
worshipped  in  more  towns  than  one,  whom  several  tribes  acknowl- 
edge in  addition  to  their  own  particular  deities,  or  who  are  even 
common  to  a  race  or  to  the  whole  of  a  great  country.  In  this  way 
we  come  to  what  is  called  national  religion ;  a  god  is  believed  in  wlio 
is  greater,  wiser,  better,  holier  than  were  the  local  gods  before  him. 
As  the  people  grow  stronger  and  more  refined  and  civilized,  the  god 
grows  also  and  becomes  the  representative  of  its  proud  self-conscious- 
ness and  of  its  high  ideals.  He  is  the  father  of  his  nation,  the  giver 
of  its  laws,  its  just  judge  and  the  defender  of  its  poor  and  unre- 
garded members,  the  rewarder  of  its  favorite  virtues,  the  inspirer  of 
its  arts.  At  this  stage,  at  the  same  time,  there  are  still  many  gods ; 
each  people  has  its  god,  but  believes  also  in  the  existence  and  the 
power  of  those  of  its  neighbors.  Or  a  people  has  several  gods,  each 
having  been  in  its  own  place  and  time  supreme,  but  not  having  de- 
stroyed the  faith  placed  in  his  brother  gods,  so  that  the  people  think 
of  a  Pantheon  in  which  a  family  or  a  system  of  gods  is  seated ;  and 
all  the  contradictions  and  confusions  of  Polytheism  disturb  the  mind 
and  chill  the  heart. 

Here  a  very  momentous  change  is  to  be  noticed  which,  when  the 
figures  of  the  gods  are  once  firmly  defined,  takes  place,  in  religions 
of  adequate  vitality,  in  their  character  and  their  relation  to  man. 
The  national  god  is  primarily  a  natural  phenomenon,  made  personal 
and  living;  he  is  fire,  he  is  the  storm  in  its  beneficent  or  in  its  over- 
bearing aspect,  he  is  the  bright  heaven,  he  is  the  sun,  he  is  the  ocean. 
But  as  the  tie  between  him  and  his  people  grows  more  close  and 
familiar,  he  puts  on  human  qualities,  and  becomes  such  a  being  as 
the  people  desire  to  have  in  their  ruler—just,  impartial,  generous, 
kind  and  merciful.  And  in  some  happy  instances  the  time  comes 
when  this  side  of  the  divine  character  prevails  over  the  earlier  nat- 


EELIGIONS    CONTRASTED.  263 

ural  features;  and  the  deity  becomes  a  moral  being.  Instead  of 
continuing,  like  the  ocean  or  the  stars,  neither  good  nor  bad,  or,  like 
some  of  the  Greek  gods,  continuing  to  represent  human  nature  in  its 
non-moral,  natural  side,  the  God  comes  to  represent  essential  moral 
goodness.  Now  he  is  in  the  first  place  good  and  holy,  he  is  not  to 
be  bribed  by  sacrifice  or  turned  aside  by  any  weakness  in  himself 
from  being  good  and  holy.  What  is  now  most  prominent  in  him  is 
that  he  favors  what  is  good  in  man  and  is  the  power  by  whose  aid 
man  can  hope  to  rise  above  his  lower  self  to  a  life  of  purity  and 
reason  and  love.  The  instances  are,  no  doubt,  few  in  which  this 
change  in  the  character  of  deity  has  quite  realized  itself;  where  it 
has  done  so  it  has  proved  the  most  momentous  change  of  all. 

Again,  a  step  closely  connected  in  some  instances  with  the  last, 
and  a  religion  comes  into  view  which  is  not  for  one  nation  only,  and 
is  not  confined  to  the  soil  of  one  country,  but  is  capable  of  appealing 
to  men  of  different  races,  and  of  ufaiting  them  in  a  community  wider 
than  that  of  country  or  of  language.  Here  we  come  to  the  wonder- 
ful phenomenon  of  the  fellowship  of  believers,  or  the  church,  which 
is  capable  of  binding  men  together  by  a  bond  in  which  there  is  noth- 
ing political  or  national.  They  are  one,  not  because  they  dwell  in 
the  same  land  or  came  of  the  same  stock,  or  speak  a  common  tongue, 
but  because  they  think  alike  and  are  filled  with  the  same  ideals  and 
hopes.  Now  we  find  religion  grown  so  strong  that  it  can  make  a 
man  forsake  his  family  to  seek  his  spiritual  kindred,  and  his  nation, 
if  need  be,  to  seek  the  spiritual  kingdom  which  has  laid  its  com- 
mands upon  him.  The  religion  of  which  we  now  speak  springs,  in 
most  instances,  out  of  the  spiritual  experience  of  one  gifted  indi- 
vidual, an  experience  which  all  can  understand  and  feel  to  be  draw- 
ing them  also  near  to  the  divine ;  and  thus  it  is  able  to  spread  from 
land  to  land,  and  to  gather  into  its  fold  nations  and  kindreds  and 
tongues. 

This,  then,  is  in  rough  outline  the  morphological  scale  of  re- 
ligions in  which  it  is  possible  to  determine  the  place  of  any  particu- 
lar faith.  Animism  comes  first,  then  the  worship  of  local  or  tribal 
gods,  then  that  of  great  gods  who  preside  over  a  conquering  race 
and  a  wide  territory.  Up  to  this  point  religion  is  polytheistic;  a 
plurality  of  gods  is  believed  to  exist,  each  being  entitled  to  recog- 
nition on  his  own  soil  and  at  the  hands  of  his  own  people.  As  these 
gods  grow  more  human  and  more  ethical  in  their  character  the  be- 
lief is  prepared,  which  if  reason  is  to  prevail  in  religion  must  come 


264  CHRISTENDOM. 

some  day,  that  only  one  God  exists,  and  that  the  other  beings  called 
gods  are  not  gods  at  all,  and  ought  not  to  be  worshipped;  and  from 
this  point  it  is  but  a  step  to  the  universal  religion  in  which  it  is  dis- 
covered that  religion,  instead  of  separating  men,  is  capable  of  bring- 
ing them  together,  since  the  way  of  salvation  which  has  been  opened 
up  in  a  great  human  experience  is  fitted  for  all  and  ought  to  be 
presented  to  all  and  received  by  all. 

If  this  scale  of  the  religious  progress  of  the  world  is,  so  far  as  it 
goes,  a  true  one— and  this  will,  I  think,  be  generally  recognized—then 
one  religion  may  be  readily  compared  with  another  by  marking  what 
place  each  holds  upon  the  scale.  And  when  we  consider  Christianity 
in  this  way  we  find,  in  the  first  place,  that  with  many  religions  which 
have  prevailed  and  many  which  still  prevail  in  the  world,  Chris- 
tianity can  scarcely  be  compared  at  all.  They  belong  to  stages  of  the 
religious  growth  of  mankind  which,  even  among  the  people  among 
whom  it  had  its  birth,  had  been  outgrown  for  centuries.  The 
Animistic  position,  the  worship  of  indefinite  numbers  of  spirits,  and 
the  dealing  with  such  beings  by  magic  and  incantation,  has  been  out- 
grown, though  many  of  its  traces  long  remained  in  Israel,  if  not  by 
the  patriarchs,  at  least  by  the  generation  of  the  Exodus.  The  rela- 
tion of  Christianity,  therefore,  to  Shintoism,  to  the  Chinese  worship 
of  spirits,  to  the  religion  expressed  in  most  of  the  Babylonian  hymns, 
or  to  the  fetishism  of  tribes  now  living,  is  that  of  the  vertebrate  to 
the  mollusc,  that  of  the  grown  man  to  the  infant,  that  of  the  modern 
civilized  state  to  the  social  arrangements  of  the  Red  Indians.  They 
are  all,  no  doubt,  Christianity  and  spirit-worship  in  these  various 
forms,  they  are  all  alike  to  be  called  religion ;  in  all  there  is  a  seeking 
after  God,  a  cultivation  by  man  of  a  higher  unseen  power.  All 
alike,  therefore,  are  to  be  sympathized  with  by  the  man  of  insight ; 
they  are  all  in  their  degree  good  and  holy,  all  evidence  of  the  power 
which  works  within  man  and  leads  our  race  forward  to  full  manhood. 
But  Christianity  is  in  no  degree  parallel  with  faiths  like  these;  it 
comes  long  after  them  in  the  scale  of  human  growth,  and  is  not  to  be 
compared  with  them  except  as  the  full-grown  animal  may  be  com- 
pared with  the  infant  it  once  was. 

And  in  the  same  way  Christianity  cannot  be  compared,  to  any 
profit,  with  the  local  worships  of  Greece,  though  these  were  often  so 
beautiful ;  nor  with  the  worship  of  Rome,  though  its  organization 
was  80  Htately;  nor  with  the  national  worships  of  Assyria  and  of 
Egypt,  though  they  have  left  such  imperishable  monuments;  nor 


RELIGIONS    COISTTRASTED.  365 

with  the  state  religion  of  China.  These  all  were  for  the  state,  the 
nation;  but  Christianity  is  not  limited  to  any  nation.  These  were 
regarded  as  instruments  of  national  well-being,  and  were  so  admin- 
istered that  the  individual  found  little  provision  made  in  them  for 
his  private  wants  or  griefs,  however  great.  They  addressed  the 
individual  not  as  an  immortal  being  of  infinite  value  in  himself,  but 
as  a  citizen  whose  part  it  was  to  share  in  the  national  cult,  even  when 
it  had  nothing  of  any  use  to  give  him.  They  even  laid  fetters  on 
his  spirit  from  which,  when  his  mind  and  conscience  awoke,  he  felt 
it  necessary  to  seek  deliverance.  They  offered  him  no  help  to  grow 
to  his  full  stature  as  an  intellectual  and  moral  being,  but  rather,  as 
Paul  says  in  his  great  comparison  of  pre-Christian  with  Christian 
religion  (Galat.  iv,  1-7),  kept  him  in  bondage  and  prevented  him 
from  realizing  his  true  nature.  In  these  old  cults  there  no  doubt  are 
many  features  which  we  are  disposed  to  envy;  but  in  their  quality 
as  religions  they  are  far  below  our  own.  They  were  more  closely  in 
alliance  with  the  arts  of  their  respective  states,  and  so  to  the  outward 
eye  were  far  more  richly  equipped  and  entitled  in  their  service,  far 
more  than  our  religion  in  general  does  to  all  the  various  efforts  of  the 
national  mind.  But  they  did  not  encourage  or  inspire  the  heart  as 
Christian  worship  did,  nor  draw  men  together  as  it  does  in  mutual 
regard  and  helpfulness.  While  we  regret  their  vanished  charm,  we 
cannot  but  see  that  it  is  better  that  they  are  left  behind. 

Of  great  religions  which  are  strictly  to  be  called  national  there  are 
at  least  two  now  flourishing  in  the  world.  The  Chinese  religion 
does  not  extend  its  regards  beyond  the  Chinese  nation;  while  tem- 
pered by  a  system  of  ethics  in  which  the  individual  finds  his  ac- 
count, it  contemplates  as  its  direct  aim  the  welfare  of  the  state  and 
does  not  seek  the  conversion  of  foreigners.  The  other  national 
religion  presently  existing  is  the  Jewish.  This  is  not  meant  to  sug- 
gest that  there  is  any  similarity  between  the  Jewish  anrl  the  Chinese 
religion  in  their  inner  character,  but  only  that  each  is  limited  to  its 
own  nation.  How  much  we  owe  to  Judiasm  we  all  know ;  though  we 
have  departed  from  its  fold,  we  carry  its  treasures  with  us  in  our 
worship  and  in  our  heart.  But  Judaism  in  its  creed,  though  not,  no 
doubt,  in  the  belief  of  most  of  its  adherents,  restricts  the  blessings  of 
the  covenant  to  the  posterity  of  Abraham,  and  so  stands  morpho- 
logically on  a  less  advanced  position  than  Christianity,  Our  own 
religion  represents  more  fully  than  the  Jewish  what  the  world  has 
attained  and  what  the  world  craves. 


2GG  CHKISTENDOM. 

So  much,  then,  of  our  task  we  have  discharged.  The  religions  of 
custom  and  tradition,  such  as  all  the  faiths  of  the  old  world  were,  and 
those  which  are  and  remain  identified  with  a  single  nation — ^these 
cannot  properly  be  compared  with  religions  which  have  sprung  from 
the  spiritual  impulse  of  a  personal  founder,  and  address  all  who 
sympathize  in  the  founder's  struggles  and  experiences.  They  be- 
long to  an  earlier  stage  of  the  growth  of  the  human  race.  No  doubt 
a  great  part  of  the  human  race  is  still  living  in  that  earlier  stage ; 
even  in  the  most  enlightened  lands  the  religion  that  is  customary  and 
traditional  still  flourishes.  Christianity  itself  has  become  the  na- 
tional religion  of  many  nations,  and  has  put  on  some  of  the  narrow- 
ness and  stiffness  which  is  inseparable  from  national  worship.  But 
the  vital  or  growing  or  missionary  element  of  one  of  the  higher  re- 
ligions is  not  to  be  sought  in  its  traditions  or  in  its  national  form. 
The  thoughts  of  the  founder,  the  nearness  he  suggests  to  us  of  the 
spiritual  world,  the  hopes  he  bids  us  cherish  for  ourselves  and  for 
mankind,  the  view  he  bids  us  take  of  our  own  nature  and  of  that  of 
other  men — these  are  the  characteristic  elements  of  religion  of  the 
most  advanced  type.  And  because  it  has  blessings  of  this  kind, 
which  all  men  can  share,  consolations  applicable  to  all,  hopes  which 
appeal  to  al),  therefore  we  cannot  seriously  compare  it  with  a  re- 
ligion where  all  is  tradition  and  routine  inherited  from  a  shadowy 
past,  or  where  everything  is  regarded  as  subserving  the  interest  of 
one  particular  state. 

Now  there  are  three  great  religions,  as  all  know,  for  which  the 
claim  is  made  that  they  have  this  character  of  universalism.  It  is 
certainly  true  that  Buddhism,  Christianity  and  Islam,  to  name  them 
in  the  order  in  which  they  entered  the  world,  have  spread  far  beyond 
the  countries  of  their  origin.  Buddhism,  which  arose  in  India,  is 
now  the  principal  religion  of  Ceylon  and  has  spread  over  the  south- 
ea-stern  lands  of  Asia.  In  India  itself  it  has  become  almost  extinct, 
but  to  the  north  of  India  it  has  its  second  and  much  larger  realm  of 
northern  Buddhism,  embracing  China,  Japan  and  Korea,  not  to 
speak  of  Thibet  and  Manchuria.  Its  total  of  adherents  rises  to 
five  hundred  millions.  The  religion  of  the  Prophet,  too,  spread  with 
immense  rapidity  from  Arabia,  the  country  of  its  birth,  to  the  lands 
of  Eastern  Asia  and  along  the  north  of  Africa,  from  which  it  crossed 
over  to  Spain  ;  and  it  is  now  spreading  rapidly  in  the  Indian  Empire. 
Its  adlie rents  arc  thought  to  number  two  hundred  millions.  The 
spread  of  Christianity  is  to  bo  read  in  the  church  histories,  and  it 


RELIGIONS    CONTRASTED.  267 

now  sends  missionaries  to  every  land.  Its  fold  is  not  so  numerously 
filled  as  that  of  Buddhism. 

How  do  we  compare  these  three  religions  together?  The  mor- 
phological standard  will  not  serve  us  here,  for  all  three  of  those 
claim  to  belong  to  the  highest  stage  in  the  morphology  of  religion. 
The  claim,  indeed,  is  in  some  respects  disputed.  It  is  said  of  Islam 
that  it  is  not  a  universal  religion,  because  it  is  not  universal.  It 
has  been  planted,  no  doubt,  in  various  lands,  but  its  spread  was 
forced  and  artificial.  It  did  not  spread  by  its  inner  force,  and  is  not 
in  its  own  nature  a  universal  one,  but  rather  a  limited  and  narrow 
one,  and  tied  to  a  particular  shrine  and  land.  And  of  Buddhism  it 
may  be  said  that  it  is  not  a  universal  religion,  because  it  is  not  in  its 
full  sense  a  religion ;  it  has  no  object  of  worship  properly  belonging 
to  it,  and  cannot  properly  meet  the  needs  of  a  society  of  men  for 
common  religious  acts  addressed  to  higher  beings  and  bringing  to  the 
community  the  sense  of  higher  guidance  and  blessing. 

But  not  to  press  in  the  meantime  these  objections  to  the  classifi- 
cation of  Islam  and  of  Buddhism  as  universal  religions,  let  us  ask 
in  what  way  a  comparison  may  be  made  of  the  three  systems  which 
have  spread  themselves  over  by  far  the  greater  part  of  the  human 
race.  To  compare  them  together  fully,  we  should  have  to  study 
each  of  them  historically ;  we  should  have  to  examine  the  stories  of 
their  respective  founders,  to  analyze  the  leaven  thus  introduced  in 
each  case  into  the  human  mind,  and  to  trace  its  action  subsequently 
and  at  the  present  day.  The  task  is  one  which  has  never  been  per- 
formed as  it  deserves,  and  cannot,  of  course,  be  attempted  here.  All 
we  can  do  is  to  throw  out  a  few  hints  as  to  the  respective  principles 
of  the  three  religions,  and  as  to  the  way  in  which  each  of  them  might 
be  expected  to  operate  on  human  character  and  on  human  society. 
The  reader  who  is  interested  in  the  subject  will  be  able  to  satisfy 
himself  by  reading  the  history  of  the  three  religions -and  studying 
the  condition  of  human  life  in  countries  where  each  prevaiL'i,  whether 
or  not  our  forecast  has  been  rightly  made. 

Buddhism  was  originally  a  mendicant  monastic  order,  which 
sought  to  communicate  to  the  world,  and  bring  all  men  to  adopt,  the 
deeper  insight  into  the  problems  of  life  which  had  been  discovered 
in  its  own  circle.  The  founder  and  his  associates  had  no  doctrine 
of  God  to  preach,  no  heavenly  message  to  make  known,  no  heaven  or 
hell  to  set  before  men's  eyes,  no  system  of  worship  either  to  set  up  or 
to  pull  down.     But  on  the  other  hand  they  had  found  out  the  secret 


268  CHRISTENDOM. 

of  dealing  with  the  sorrows  of  life,  and  believed  themselves  to  be 
able  to  offer  the  true  remedy  for  the  universal  suffering  by  which 
they  considered  mankind  to  be  tormented.  All  life  is  suffering  was 
the  axiom  from  which  the  teaching  of  the  founder  set  out ;  all  suffer- 
ing is  due  to  desire,  he  held,  not  in  this  differing  very  much  from 
Jesus  Christ ;  and  the  cure  for  all  suffering  is  to  be  sought  in  the 
eradication  of  desire,  in  this  differing  from  Christ,  who  taught  men 
how  to  control  desire  by  directing  it  into  higher  channels  of  service. 
By  withdrawal  and  self-absorption,  the  Teacher  held,  desire  could  be 
got  rid  of  in  the  end,  while  a  man  could  not  be  saved  at  once  from 
being  born  again  to  another  life,  and  still  another  and  another,  all  of 
them  made  up  of  suffering,  yet  by  strenuous  effort  the  goal  might  be 
brought  a  little  nearer.  The  man  might  get  upon  the  road  to  re- 
trieve the  errors  of  his  past  existences  and  to  travel  toward  the  final 
state  in  which  desire  should  be  quite  gone,  and  with  it  suffering  also. 
Applied  to  a  large  number  of  adherents  or  made  into  the  religion 
of  a  country,  this  system,  of  which  this  is  the  keynote,  has  obviously 
great  defects.  It  puts  before  the  believer  no  god  to  worship,  but 
directs  him  to  try  his  own  efforts  as  the  source  of  success  in  the 
higher  life.  For  select  souls,  or  for  a  monastic  community,  or  a  set 
of  such  communities,  the  method  perhaps  might  serve;  in  the  state 
of  belief  that  existed  in  India  when  Gautama  taught,  it  may  have 
been  the  highest  possible ;  but  as  the  faith  of  a  people  it  was  too  full 
of  blanks  and  of  negatives  not  to  be  quickly  altered  from  its  original 
character.  In  practice  Buddhism  has  been  filled  up  with  heavenly 
beings  who  have  no  right  to  be  where  they  are.  Gautama  Buddha 
himself  soon  came  to  be  worshipped,  as  well  as  other  Buddhas  or  Re- 
vealers  who  came  before  him;  and  in  Chinese  Buddhism  a  whole 
system  of  gods,  saints,  sacrifices  and  prayers  flourishes  greatly,  so 
that  the  religion  caine  to  appear  not  very  different  from  the  others 
which  existed  beside  it,  and  its  original  motive  and  intention  were 
to  a  large  extent  obscured.  In  this  case,  therefore,  its  inherent  evils 
are  not  so  manifest;  but  wherever  this  religion  travels  it  must  neces- 
sarily carry  with  it  much  of  the  sadness  of  its  birth.  Rising  out  of 
the  bankruptcy  of  Hindoo  thought  as  to  the  gods  and  as  to  human 
destiny,  and  out  of  the  mortification  of  the  monkish  life  in  which 
compensation  was  sought  for  the  loss  of  direct  and  natural  religion. 
Buddhism  must  tend,  wherever  it  goes,  to  darken  and  unnerve.  It 
calls  to  sacrifice  and  self-mortification,  which  do  not  issue  in  the 
glory  of  God  or  in  strenuous  action  for  the  good  of  society,  but  are 


RELIGIONS    CONTRASTED.  269 

taught  to  be  good  and  desirable  for  their  own  sake;  it  therefore 
checks  rather  than  encourages  action  and  enterprise,  it  builds  up  no 
healthy  social  fabric,  and  holds  out  no  hope  appealing  to  the  general 
mass  of  men,  either  for  this  world  or  for  any  other. 

In  Islam,  on  the  contrary,  we  find  a  faith  which  is  highly  prac- 
tical and  energetic,  with  extremely  precise  and  definite  beliefs,  and 
clear  and  unmistakable  injunctions  for  conduct.  If  in  Buddhism 
the  aim  of  the  believer  is  found  in  his  own  life,  and  the  working  out 
of  such  redemption  as  is  possible  to  him,  here  the  believer  is  bidden 
to  subordinate  himself  entirely  to  the  will  of  God  and  to  accept  with- 
out hesitation  what  is  'fixed  for  him  from  above,  to  do  or  to  endure. 
He  is  not  encouraged  to  think  of  his  own  redemption,  but  to  devote 
himself  unhesitatingly  to  the  following  of  God's  law  and  the  execu- 
tion of  the  divine  purposes,  secure  that  if  he  does  so  God  will  take 
care  for  him,  and  give  him,  if  not  what  he  would  choose,  at  least 
what  God  deems  to  be  best  for  him.  This  great  religion  sprang  into 
being  through  the  experience  of  one  who  is  rightly  called  the 
Prophet,  since  he  heard  with  perfect  clearness  the  voice  of  the  su- 
preme and  only  God  and  handed  on  to  others  with  uncompromising 
faithfulness  what  was  thus  revealed  to  him,  and  acted  the  part  as- 
signed to  him  from  above  with  overwhelming  vigor  and  unshakable 
conviction.  A  religion  so  simple  and  so  forcible,  laying  hold  of  men 
with  so  clear  a  voice  and  calling  so  imperatively  for  obedience  to  its 
behests,  could  not  fail  to  produce  an  immense  impression  in  the 
world.  For  races  full  of  vigor  and  not  yet  arrived  at  the  highest 
levels  of  culture,  it  is  an  admirable  rule.  It  provides  them  with  a 
code  of  duties  they  can  understand,  holds  out  sanctions  which  readily 
appeal  to  them,  calls  them  to  action,  restrains  some  at  least  of  their 
passions,  and  makes  the  spiritual  world  real  and  present  to  them. 
It  is  a  drill  which  lifts  them  above  many  of  the  vices  of  barbarism 
and  forms  them  into  a  life  of  discipline  and  effectiveness.  To  many 
nations  which  have  embraced  it,  Islam  has  proved  highly  tonic  and 
elevating,  and  among  races  at  a  certain  stage  of  civilization  it  no 
doubt  has  still  a  great  future  to  expect. 

On  the  other  hand  a  stream  may  not  rise  higher  than  its  source, 
and  the  source  from  which  Islam  set  out  was  in  many  respects  not 
the  most  lofty.  The  defects  of  Islam  are  to  be  seen  in  its  origin. 
The  greatest  is  that  Allah,  the  god  who  spoke  with  such  vehemence 
through  the  Prophet,  is  an  abstract  being,  with  little  history,  little 
definite  character,  and  therefore  somewhat  remote  from  men  and  an 


270  CHRISTENDOM. 

object  of  fear  rather  than  love.  The  faithful  cannot  recite  his 
mighty  works  in  the  past  as  the  Jew  can  those  of  Jehovah.  He  is 
the  negation  of  the  false  gods,  the  idols,  whom  Mohammed  found 
receiving  the  worship  of  his  countr}'men,  but  in  himself  he  is  merely 
an  abstraction  of  the  qualities  of  deity  as  conceived  by  the  South 
Semitics;  power,  impetuosity,  strictness  in  judgment,  jealousy,  apd 
also  a  certain  mildness  in  some  directions,  mercy,  without  which  men 
would  scarcely  worship  him.  He  is  a  moral  god,  but  not  equally  so 
in  all  matters ;  some  indulgences  he  allows  and  even  holds  out  as  part 
of  the  blessedness  of  the  future,  and  his  religion  is  for  men  and  does 
not  encourage  a  high  view  of  the  nature  or  of  the  rights  of  woman. 
The  civilization,  therefore,  which  this  religion  fosters  will  be  very 
defective  on  this  side,  and  this  is  a  defect  from  which  Islam  can 
never  free  itself.  It  has  also  to  be  said  that  Allah  is  a  local  god  and 
has  taken  up  into  his  worship  various  local  superstitions  connected 
with  Mecca  which  are  not  of  an  elevating  character,  and  belong  to 
the  'Taeggarly  elements"  of  religion  much  more  than  to  its  spiritual 
and  emancipating  tendency. 

We  should,  therefore,  expect  to  find  that  if  this  religion  spread 
quickly,  its  extension  was  due  not  wholly  at  least  to  its  own  inner 
character  causing  it  to  be  eagerly  adopted,  but  to  the  policy  of  the 
virile  race  who  were  identified  with  it  and  whose  highest  duty  lay  in 
promoting  it.  Local  and  narrow,  and  carrying  along  with  it  unim- 
provable relics  of  heathenism,  it  was  spread  by  force,  and  while  it 
proved  a  valuable  discipline  to  the  peoples  who  accepted  it,  it  could 
not  lead  them  to  any  high  level  of  civilization. 

When  we  come  to  speak  of  Christianity  we  find  ourselves,  of 
course,  in  a  difficulty.  We  have  spoken  of  Buddhism  and  of  Islam 
from  the  outside  and  have  pointed  out  their  merits  and  defects  from 
the  position  of  a  disinterested  observer;  but  we  cannot  speak  of 
Christ's  religion  in  the  same  way.  Living  in  the  religion  we  feel  its 
blessings  too  strongly  and  are  too  unconscious  of  its  drawbacks  to 
Bpeak  of  it  as  a  Mohammedan  or  a  Buddhist  might.  Perhaps  it  is 
not  to  be  desired  that  a  Christian  writer  should  do  so.  One  who 
could  write  on  the  subject  of  this  paper  without  feeling  or  showing 
any  enthusiasm  for  his  own  religion  would  surely  be  wanting  in  one 
of  the  chief  qualifications  demanded  by  his  task. 

That  is  not  to  say,  however,  that  the  writer  is  not  to  have  his  own 
views  of  what  Christianity  is,  nor  to  l)e  at  liberty  to  discard  views 
of  its  nature  which  he  thinks  one-sided  or  untrue.     Christianity  has 


RELIGIONS    CONTRASTED.  371 

been  a  monastic  system  like  Buddhism,  and  has  preached  withdrawal 
from  the  world  and  the  modification  of  all  desire;  but  we  at  least 
could  not  defend  it  in  that  aspect.  To  us  it  is  a  doctrine  which  in- 
spires action — action  in  the  world  and  for  the  world — and  makes  for 
the  free  development  of  human  nature,  for  the  salvation  both  of  the 
individual  and  of  society.  Christianity,  again,  has  been,  like  Islam, 
a  system  of  discipline  imposing  itself  from  without  upon  the  people, 
and  requiring  outward  conformity  to  its  creed  and  to  its  moral  code. 
But  in  this  aspect,  also,  as  a  system  of  weak  and  poor  elements,  we 
could  have  no  heart  to  defend  it  except  as  a  yoke  which  may  have 
been  necessary  at  certain  times  and  among  certain  barbarous  peo- 
ples. What,  then,  do  we  regard  as  the  essential  part  of  Chris- 
tianity, as  that  which  constitutes  its  life  and  force,  and  is  present 
more  or  less  in  all  its  multitudinous  and  most  widely  different 
forms  ?  Surely  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  its  essence  is  love.  That 
God  loves  man  and  would  have  him  to  know  it,  and  to  take  that  love 
to  his  heart  and  live  in  the  power  of  it — that  is  the  essential  Chris- 
tian Gospel.  In  this  message  lies  its  energy  to  call  men  back  from 
evil  ways,  to  give  them  a  higher  view  of  their  own  nature  and  des- 
tiny, to  emancipate  them,  to  inspire  them,  to  lead  them  forward  in  an 
unending  course  of  self-realization  and  development.  A  religion 
of  which  this  is  the  central  thought  cannot  but  send  missionaries 
to  all  the  world  to  tell  men  who  do  not  yet  know  it  what  their  true 
nature  is,  and  what  God  and  those  who  already  know  themselves  to 
be  God's  children  would  have  them  to  become.  Where  this  belief  is 
held  all  the  institutions  of  human  life  must  be  so  moulded  as  to 
allow  God's  children  to  come  to  their  true  position  and  enjoy  their 
rightful  heritage.  All  men  must  be  considered  entitled  to  be  treated 
with  the  utmost  respect,  for  their  own  sake ;  no  man  can  be  the  chat- 
tel of  another;  all  must  be  encouraged  and  assisted  so  far  as  the 
framework  of  the  world  permits;  to  grow  up  to  the  full  stature  of 
their  being,  and  to  enjoy  as  far  as  possible  the  gift  God  has  bestowed 
on  his  children. 

If  this  is  Christianity,  then  it  is  an  instrument  of  the  greatest 
possible  efficiency  for  the  redress  of  human  evils,  the  unsealing  of 
human  energy,  and  the  improvement  of  human  society,  and  neither 
Buddhism  nor  Islam  is  at  all  to  be  compared  to  it  in  point  of  value 
for  the  world. 


THE  DISUNION  OF  CHRISTENDOM* 


Rector  Algernon  S.  Crapsey^  D.D., 

ROCUESTEB. 

Lines  of  progress  and  unifii-ation  as  indicated  by  the  present  state  of  the 
church : 

First.  The  subordination  of  the  ofBcia!  organization  of  the  church,  from 
the  highest  to  the  lowest  of  its  members,  to  the  church  itself,  as  practiced  in 
the  primitive  church,  as  decreed  by  the  Western  church  in  the  Council  of 
Constance,  and  as  affirmed  by  the  principles  of  the  Protestant  Reformation. 

Second.  The  pastoral  rather  than  the  priestly  conception  of  the  ministry. 
It  is  the  office  of  the  ministry  to  bring  the  people  to  God,  rather  than  to  be 
to  the  people  instead  of  God. 

Third.  The  statement  of  Christian  doctrine  so  that  it  will  be  in  accord 
with  the  facts  of  the  visible  universe,  as  these  are  discovered  and  formulated 
by  the  processes  of  inductive  thought.  The  earth's  form  and  motion,  man's 
place  in  the  earth,  his  past  history  and  present  condition,  are  matters  for 
scientific  investigation  and  settlement. 

Fourth.  The  statement  of  Christian  doctrine  go  that  it  will  not  conflict 
with  the  great  primal  instincts  of  the  human  heart ;  the  instinct  for  justice, 
mercy  and  truth.  No  man  will  be  compelled  to  believe  such  a  doctrine  as 
that  of  everlasting  punishment  as  taught  by  S.  Augustine  in  "The  City 
of  God,"  or  the  doctrine  of  predestination  as  taught  in  "The  Institutes  of 
Calvin." 

Fifth.  Absolute  intellectual  freedom  within  the  church,  so  that  every 
opinion  shall  have  a  hearing,  and  be  taken  for  what  it  is  worth ;  to  have  the 
force  of  its  author's  personal  character,  learning  and  wisdom  ;  and  to  estab- 
lish it.self  by  its  own  truthfulness  or  not  at  all. 

tSixth.  The  submission  of  the  entire  content  of  Christian  tradition,  both 
oral  and  written,  to  the  trained  intelligence,  that  the  content,  meaning  and 
value  of  the  whole  and  of  each  part  may  be  ascertained,  correctly  estimated 
and  set  forth,  "that  those  things  which  are  not  shaken  may  remain." 

Seventh.  The  restoration  of  the  church's  moral  discipline  as  the  onlj  true 
basis  of  her  spiritual  life. 

*  *  * 

No  ONE  can  read  the  prayer  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  the 
Christ,  which  He  prayed  in  the  upper  chamber  of  Jerusalem,  on  the 
night  before  His  death,  without  a  feeling  of  compassion  for  Him. 
So  far  as  we  can  see,  one  great  petition  in  that  prayer  has  never  been 
answered  :  The  last  wish  of  the  heart  of  Jesus  has  never  been  grati- 
fied and,  if  that  heart  be  living  to-day,  it  must,  we  think,  be  bearing 
the  grief  of  a  great  disappointment. 

272 


DISUNION    OF    CHRISTENDOM.  273 

At  the  close  of  that  great  prayer  recorded  in  the  seventeenth  chap- 
ter of  the  Gospel  according  to  St.  John,  Jesus  prayed  that  His 
followers  might  be  one  in  Him  as  He  was  one  in  and  with  the 
Father. 

He  placed  all  His  hope  and  expectation  on  this  unity  of  His 
people.  It  was  to  be  His  witness  to  the  world.  He  was  about  to  lay 
down  His  life  that  He  might  by  His  death  reconcile  men  to  God  and 
to  one  another.  The  world  in  His  day  was  a  world  of  disunion  and 
discord.     Men  were  at  odds  with  God  and  at  odds  with  one  another. 

The  only  unity  existing  at  the  time  was  the  outward  political  unity 
of  the  Western  World  in  the  Eoman  Empire.  Men  were  at  one,  only 
in  so  far  as  they  were,  by  physical  force,  compelled  to  obey  the  will 
of  one  man. 

But  this  forced  accord  only  made  more  acute  the  inward  discon- 
tent. Within  the  Roman  Empire  there  was  a  chronic  condition  of 
disorder.  Society,  besides  the  ordinary  divisions  of  rich  and  poor,  of 
great  and  small,  was  separated  into  the  two  irreconcilable  classes  of 
master  and  slave;  with  cruelty  on  the  one  side  and  treachery  on  the 
other. 

Nor  did  the  political  organization  secure  for  the  world  over  which 
it  tyranized  the  poor  boon  of  political  union.  The  Emperor  him- 
self was  the  centre  of  disorder.  He  was  the  object  of  envy  and  of 
fear,  and  was  again  and  again  the  victim  of  conspiracy  in  his  own 
household. 

Nor  could  men  in  those  days  find  any  centre  of  union  in  their 
religion.  Their  very  gods  were  at  war  with  one  another.  There 
was  no  common  faith  in  any  Divine  Being.  Religion  was  largely  a 
matter  of  national  custom  and  tribal  tradition.  Every  city  had  its 
own  god ;  almost  every  street  its  own  cult.  Our  Lord  and  Saviour 
was  of  the  Jewish  race  and  as  a  Jew  He  felt  most  keenly  the  evils 
arising  from  the  disorder  of  the  world.  The  Jew  had  for  ages  lived 
in  lonely  and  bitter  isolation,  separated  from  the  nations  of  the 
earth  by  impassable  religious  barriers,  and  this  separation  had  been 
the  breeding  cause  of  hatred.  "It  w^as  unlawful  for  a  man  that  was 
a  Jew  to  keep  company  or  come  unto  one  of  another  nation,"  and 
among  the  Jews  themselves  there  were  sects  and  parties  which  hated 
each  other  even  more  bittrly  than  they  hated  the  Gentile. 

So  both  at  home  and  abroad  Jesus  saw  men  hateful  and  hating  one 
another;  saw  human  society  in  a  state  of  dissolution,  as  if  about  to 
resolve  itself  into  its  original  elements. 


274  CHRISTENDOM. 


OUR  lord's  plan  of  unification. 

To  save  the  world  from  the  awful  calamity  of  relapsing  into  a 
hopeless  barbarism  was  one  object  of  the  mission  of  Jesus  Christ. 
He  came  to  give  mankind  a  principle  of  unity;  He  came  to  break 
down  middle  walls  of  partition,  to  make  of  Jew  and  Gentile,  of 
Greek  and  barbarian,  of  clean  and  unclean,  of  male  and  female,  of 
bond  and  free,  one  united  people. 

And  his  method  was  very  simple.  If  we  may  say  so  reverently, 
He  adopted  the  fundamental  principle  of  the  Roman  Empire.  He 
set  up  a  kingdom  with  its  absolute  King,  in  obedience  to  whom 
men  were  to  find  peace,  and  in  communion  with  whom  they  were  to 
find  a  common  life. 

But  the  King  who  was  thus  made  the  centre  of  unity  was  not 
some  wretched  mortal,  some  man  whose  kingdom  might  fail,  set  up 
to-day,  cast  down  to-morrow,  but  it  was  the  infinite  and  eternal  God 
whose  Kingdom  is  everlasting  and  of  whose  government  there  is 
no  end. 

The  King  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  differs,  however,  from  the 
Roman  Emperor  in  the  nature  of  His  government.  He  does  not 
rule  outwardly  and  formally  over  the  actions  of  men,  but  inwardly 
and  really  over  their  affections  and  motives.  He  is  in  personal 
touch  with  each  man  and  each  man  is  in  personal  union  with  Him, 
and  it  is  this  personal  relationship  with  their  common  King  which  is 
the  bond  of  union  among  the  citizens  of  the  Kingdom ;  they  have 
fellowship  with  Him,  therefore  they  have  fellowship  with  one  an- 
other. 

Jesus  conceived  of  Himself,  as  being  in  such  close  and  personal 
union  with  God  that  He  could  say  of  Himself,  "I  and  the  Father 
are  one,"  and  "whosoever  hath  seen  Me  hath  seen  the  Father."  It 
was  this  consciousness  of  His  absolute  union  with  God  which  has 
given  the  Lord  Jesus  His  place  in  human  history.  Men  have  seen 
in  Him  the  revelation  of  God  to  themselves;  in  coming  to  Him  they 
believe  that  they  are  coming  to  God. 

And  this  was  the  thought  of  the  Lord  himself.  He  prayed  for 
them,  saying,  "That  they  may  all  bo  one  as  Thou,  Father,  art  in  Me 
and  I  in  Thee,  that  they  may  be  one  in  Us,  that  the  world  may  be- 
lieve that  Thou  hast  sent  Me." 

This  principle  of  unity  in  God  is  the  only  principle  that  can  unite 


DISUNION    OF    CHRISTENDOM.  275 

all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men,  all  nations  and  generations.  There 
can  be  no  class  distinctions  in  this  Kingdom,  for  before  God  all  men 
are  necessarily  equal.  God  is  so  far  above  men  that  He  can  look 
upon  them  with  perfect  impartiality.  He  has  no  court  favorites  and 
is  no  respecter  of  persons.  Then,  as  He  is  unchangeable,  His  gov- 
ernment does  not  change,  and  each  generation,  as  it  is  born  into  the 
world,  finds  itself  under  its  beneficent  rule. 

SUCCESS  OF  THE  PLAN. 

Our  Lord  gave  practical  effect  to  this  principle  of  unity  by  mak- 
ing it  the  organic  principle  of  a  distinct  society  of  men.  He  called 
out  of  the  world  such  as  could  hear  Him,  and  them  He  constituted 
the  new  people  of  God. 

The  first  consequence  of  this  preaching  of  unity  was  a  greater 
disunion.  A  few  men  separated  themselves  into  a  distinct  com- 
pany, which  company  had  for  its  unifying  principle  the  union  of 
each  with  God  and  of  each  with  all;  they  were  saints,  set  apart  to 
God ;  they  were  brethren,  living  with  and  loving  each  other. 

This  society  was  open  to  all ;  any  one,  no  matter  of  what  race  or 
condition,  could  come  into  it,  provided  he  would  conform  to  its  fun- 
damental principles.  This  society  was  the  creation  of  Jesus  the 
Christ;  His  history  was  its  history,  and  His  life  its  life.  He  was 
the  centre  of  union  to  His  church,  as  His  church  was  to  be  the  centre 
of  union  to  the  world. 

And  what  Jesus  expected  did  actually  come  to  pass.  His  experi- 
ment at  unification  is  successful  beyond  all  experiments  in  human 
history.  No  other  principle  has  unified  so  many  men  for  so  long  a 
time. 

We  can  say  with  safety  that  the  Christian  Church  was  the  centre 
of  moral  unity  to  the  Roman  Empire.  Within  two  centuries  of  its 
foundation  it  had  gathered  to  itself  and  given  organic  form  to  what 
was  left  of  the  moral  and  spiritual  life  of  that  decaying  people,  and 
saved  society  from  utter  dissolution. 

And  when  the  Roman  Empire  fell,  we  know,  as  a  mere  matter  of 
history,  that  the  Church  of  Jesus  the  Christ  was  the  only  centre  of 
unity  left  in  the  Western  World;  and  the  church  organization  the 
only  one  strong  enough  to  resist  the  disintegrating  forces  that  were 
resolving  human  society  into  its  tribal  elements. 

It  preserved  for  future  generations  all  that  was  vital  in  the  old 


276  CHRISTENDOM. 

civilization,  and  it  received  into  its  communion  the  new  life,  as  in 
tribe  after  tribe  it  came  down  from  the  North.  It  baptized  that 
life  and  disciplined  it,  and  reduced  it  to  a  certain  order,  and  gave  to 
it  a  common  character,  so  that  the  Goth  and  the  Frank,  the  Dane  and 
Saxon,  were  united  in  a  gTeat  common  life,  which  modified,  and  in  a 
large  degree  took  the  place  of,  the  tribal  and  national  life  of  each 
people. 

The  result  of  this  action  of  the  Christian  organization,  and  of  the 
Christian  principle  upon  the  world,  has  been  the  creation  of  the 
highest,  the  greatest,  and,  as  it  now  seems  to  be,  the  most  permanent 
form  of  human  society  which  the  world  has  ever  seen. 

The  great  fact  of  present  history  is  the  domination  of  Christen- 
dom over  the  rest  of  the  world.  That  civilization,  in  the  midst  of 
which  we  live,  is  Christian  in  history  and  Christian  in  character; 
it  is  over  two  thousand  years  old,  and  it  seems  to  be  just  entering 
upon  its  life.  In  its  early  days  it  suffered  the  assaults  of  the  pagan 
world,  which  put  forth  its  whole  power  to  destroy  this  new  principle 
of  life.  But  the  Christian  Church  not  only  survived  these  assaults, 
it  prevailed  over  them,  and  it  was  the  pagan  world  that  died.  Six 
hundred  years  after  its  organization  the  Christian  civilization  was 
subjected  to  an  attack  by  another  civilization,  based  unon  a  bastard 
form  of  its  own  principle  of  unity ;  and  for  seven  centuries  it  had  to 
fight  for  its  life.  In  that  warfare  Christendom  lost  its  original 
home,  and  some  of  its  fairest  provinces.  But  it  survived  the  struggle, 
and  has  been  growing  younger  with  the  passing  years,  while  its 
ancient  enemy,  Mohammedanism,  has  grown  old  and  decrepit,  and  is 
simply  waiting  the  sentence  of  Christendom  to  die  a  dishonorable 
death.  And  we  cannot  see  in  the  far  future  any  power  that  can 
destroy  and  supplant  that  which  the  Christian  forces  have  organized 
and  preserved  in  the  world. 

TIIK    FArLUKE  OF  THAT   PLAN    IN   THE   CHURCH   SINCE  THE  FOURTH 

CENTURY. 

It  may  seem  strange,  considering  what  has  just  gone  before,  that 
we  should  speak  of  the  disappointment  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ;  as 
if  He  wore  looking  down  from  Heaven  upon  the  failure  of  His  hopes. 

Surely  He  to  whom  the  ages  belong,  who  has  given  name  and  form 
and  substance  to  the  last  and  greatest  era  of  human  history,  can 
have  no  reason  to  be  dissatisfied  with  that  short,  earthly  life  which 
has  been  productive  of  such  wonderful  and  lasting  results. 


DISUNION    OF    CHRISTENDOM.  277 

It  is  not,  however,  the  world,  over  which,  we  reverently  believe, 
our  Lord  is,  at  this  present  moment  grieving;  with  the  world  at 
large  He  has  every  reason  to  be  satisfied ;  it  is  the  church  which  has 
disappointed  him. 

There  is  at  this  moment  a  Christian  world,  which  has  a  certain 
rude,  available  unity,  but  within  that  Christian  world  the  distinc- 
tive Christian  organization,  to  which  it  owes  its  origin,  has  gone  to 
pieces. 

The  church  is  no  longer  a  centre  of  unity  to  the  world,  because  it 
has  no  unity  in  itself.  There  is  no  sadder  sight  now  to  be  seen  by 
God  or  man  or  angel  than  that  scene  of  discord  and  disunion,  which 
is,  almost  without  shame,  presented  to  the  public  gaze  by  the  Cliris- 
tian  Church.  Christians  seem  to  be  acting  in  open  scorn  of  their 
Lord's  last  earthly  wish.  They  who  profess  and  call  themselves 
Christians  seem  to  have  lost  all  desire  to  keep  the  unity  of  the  faith, 
in  the  bond  of  peace.  The  followers  of  our  common  Lord  are  sep- 
arated one  from  another  by  almost  impassable  gulfs  of  prejudice  and 
hatred.  And  to-day  the  Christian  religion  seems  to  be  the  one  dis- 
integrating force  in  the  world.  Not  only  have  we  the  great  churches 
and  denominations  set  off,  one  against  the  other,  in  battle  array, 
watching  each  other  with  jealous  suspicion,  but  within  each  church 
and  denomination  we  have  party  strife  and  factional  discord.  There 
would  seem  to  be  nothing  too  trivial  for  Christians  to  quarrel  over. 
A  light  too  little  or  a  light  too  much  will  bring  about  a  crisis  in  a 
great  national  church.  Multitudes  of  men  and  women  tired  of  the 
ceaseless  bickerings  which  appear  in  these  days  to  be  a  necessary 
adjunct  of  all  church  life  are  finding  peace  outside  of  every  Chris- 
tian communion.  The  necessary  result  of  our  present  condition  is 
waste  of  force,  loss  of  efficiency  and  decay  of  moral  influence. 
Neither  at  home  nor  abroad  can  the  church  fulfill  its  mission.  Men 
will  not  believe  where  the  witnesses  do  not  agree  together.  They 
will  conclude  that  an  institution  that  does  not  know  its  own  mind 
can  hardly  claim  to  know  the  mind  of  God. 

The  millions  in  heathen  lands  and  the  still  sadder  millions  in 
Christian  lands  are  waiting,  and  have  been  waiting  for  centuries,  for 
the  church  to  settle  her  quarrels,  that  she  may  have  time  and  strength 
to  preach  to  them  the  blessed  Gospel  of  the  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus 
Christ.  The  Lord  Himself  is  waiting  for  that  unity  that  He  may 
manifest  Himself  more  fully  to  the  world. 

Any  contribution,  therefore,  to  the  cause  of  Christian  unity,  even 


278  CHRISTENDOM. 

if,  like  some  bitter  draught,  it  for  the  moment  intensifies  the  dis- 
ease, should  be  welcome  by  all  who  have  the  good  order  of  the  church 
at  heart. 

In  what  follows  some  things  will  be  said  which  will  not  be  pleasant 
to  all  hearers.  The  only  excuse  for  saying  them  is  that  they  are 
believed  to  be  true. 

CAUSE  OF  FAILURE. 

The  present  unhappy  divisions  of  Christendom  are  in  a  great 
measure  owing  to  two  inadequate,  if  not  false,  ideals  of  Christian 
unity,  which  up  to  this  time  have  had  almost  entire  possession  of  the 
Christian  world. 

The  first  of  these  is :  That  the  unity  of  the  church  is  an  outward, 
formal  unity  in  a  visible  political  corporation ;  and  that  the  centre 
of  unity  is  to  be  found  in  the  official  organization  of  that  corpora- 
tion. That  there  are  certain  officials  who  by  right  of  their  office  are 
clothed  with  plenary  power  to  organize  and  govern  the  church. 

This  theory  is  that  the  church  centres  in  its  own  official  organiza- 
tion. As  Louis  XIV  said  of  himself :  "I  am  the  state,"  meaning 
that  the  state  centred  in  him,  deriving  from  him  all  its  political 
rights  and  even  its  political  life;  so  the  official  organization  of  the 
church  has  said  of  itself,  "I  am  the  church,"  meaning  that  the 
church  centres  in  it,  and  derives  from  it  all  truth  and  life. 

This  theory  holds  that  the  authority  of  the  organization,  though 
derivative,  is  absolute,  vested  forever  in  the  persons  who  hold  office 
in  the  organization.  The  dectrine  is  that  God  gave  all  power  in 
heaven  and  earth  to  His  Son  Jesus  the  Christ,  that  Jesus,  in  turn, 
delegated  his  power  to  St.  Peter,  that  St.  Peter  went  to  Eome  and 
centred  the  church  in  that  city  and  in  himself  as  the  bishop  of  that 
city.  And  St.  Peter,  according  to  this  theory,  is  not  so  much  the 
head  of  the  church  as  he  is  the  church;  the  church  derives  its  life 
from  him,  and  out  of  him  has  no  existence.  Then  St.  Peter  in  turn 
handed  on  his  power  to  his  successor,  and  so  it  has  come  down  from 
the  first  Bishop  of  Rome  to  the  last,  and  whosoever  happens  for  the 
time  being  to  occupy  that  office  is,  ex-officio,  clothed  with  Divine 
wisdom  and  Divine  power.     Plis  will  is  law  and  his  word  infallible. 

This  theory  is  the  one  upon  which  the  Roman  Church  is  based  and 
which  found  its  last  expression  in  the  decrees  of  the  Vatican  Council. 

Rut  it  would  be  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  this  theory  is  not  to  be 


DISUNION    OF    CHRISTENDOM.  279 

found  outside  the  pale  of  Rome.  It  is  to  be  feared  that  this  is  the 
theory  of  many  an  Anglican  prelate  and  many  a  Protestant  minister. 

Indeed,  the  extreme  High  Church  theory  is  only  a  modification  of 
the  Roman  theory.  In  this  theory  the  ministry  is  the  church,  so 
much  so  that  when  a  man  goes  into  the  ministry  he  is  said  to  go  into 
the  church.  The  Lord  Jesus,  according  to  this  doctrine,  delegated 
His  power  not  to  one  man,  St.  Peter,  but  to  twelve  men,  of  whom 
St.  Peter  was  only  one ;  that  these  twelve  men  handed  their  power 
on  to  their  immediate  successors  and  so  on  down  to  our  day.  And 
many  a  man  has  lurking  in  his  heart  the  thought  that  when,  by  the 
accidents  of  an  Episcopal  election,  he  is  chosen  to  a  bishopric,  he  is 
clothed  in  his  own  person  with  awful  and  mysterious  powers,  that  his 
personal  will  is  law  and  his  personal  word  infallible. 

Nor  is  the  Protestant  world  free  from  this  conception  of  the 
Christian  ministry.  When  a  man  stands  in  a  pulpit,  looking  down 
on  a  quiescent  congregation,  he  can  hardly  help  thinking  that  he  is 
greater  than  thej^ — that  he  is  to  them  instead  of  God. 

This  theory  that  the  church  centres  in  its  official  organization  is 
the  natural  theory  of  officialism  the  world  over. 

Both  in  church  and  state  office-holders  magnify  their  office,  and 
are  apt  to  think  of  themselves  (to  use  a  pregnant  current  phrase) 
as  the  "whole  thing."  The  few  officials  are  so  important,  in  their 
own  eyes,  and  in  the  eyes  of  the  world  the  unofficial  multitude  is  so 
unimportant,  that  the  office-holder  naturally  thinks  that  the  people 
exist  for  him,  rather  than  he  for  the  people.  This  theory  of  official 
life  did  not  begin  with  the  Christian  ministry  in  its  Papal  or  any 
other  form.  It  is  as  old  as  human  society.  The  divine  right  of 
kings  is  a  doctrine  dear  to  every  absolute  monarch,  and  all  that  the 
Papal  theory  has  done  is  to  carry  that  doctrine  to  its  highest  point, 
and  to  give  the  spiritual  monarch  and  his  assistants  absolute  power 
over  the  inward  as  well  as  the  outward  life  of  man. 

We  can  safely  say  of  this  theory  that  it  is  a  false  and  inadequate 
theory,  because  it  has  utterly  failed  in  practice,  both  in  church  and 
state.  In  the  long  run  such  a  system  does  not  preserve  unity,  it 
destroys  it.  A  despotism  either  in  church  or  state  is  always  a  de- 
structive and  not  a  creative  force.  Such  a  form  of  government  is 
excusable  only  in  times  of  violent  disorder  and  possible  only  in  low 
stages  of  human  development. 

The  history  of  man's  progress  is  the  history  of  his  painful  deliver- 
ance from  under  the  hand  of  his  rulers,  and  the  last  outcome  of  his 


880  CHKISTENDOM. 

age-long  struggle  has  been  to  make  his  rulers  his  servants  instead 
of  his  masters. 

In  barbarous  times,  when  men  are  for  the  most  part  thieves  and 
murderers,  a  strong  central  government  is  necessary  to  preserve 
order.  Such  times  are  the  opportunity  of  despotism,  which,  having 
once  taken  hold,  keeps  hold.  And  when  better  times  come  and  the 
mass  of  men  are  honest  and  peaceable,  they  find  that  their  govern- 
ment is  an  incubus,  which,  if  they  would  live  and  thrive,  they  must 
throw  off.  So  a  despotism  is  the  breeder  of  revolution,  and  in  revo- 
lution society  is  disordered,  if  not  destroyed. 

So,  we  see,  that  a  personal  official  despotism,  in  one  man  or  a  few 
men,  is  not  conducive  to,  but  destructive  of,  unity.  And  this  its 
logical  is  also  its  historical  consequence.  The  history  of  the  theory 
of  Christian  unity  which  we  are  now  considering  is  the  history  of 
the  disruption  of  Christendom.  The  schism  between  the  East  and 
the  West  was  occasioned  by  a  quarrel  among  the  officials  of  the 
church  for  precedence.  And  to  this  day  the  only  real  question  be- 
tween the  East  and  the  West  is  which  shall  be  greater,  the  official 
head  of  the  Latin,  or  the  official  head  of  the  Orthodox  communion. 
The  Pope  excommunicated  the  Metropolitan  of  Constantinople  and 
the  Metropolitan  of  Constantinople  excommunicated  the  Pope  upon 
a  matter  in  which  the  Christian  people  at  large  were  not  at  all  con- 
cerned, and  for  a  thousand  years  the  people  of  the  East  and  the  West 
have  been  isolated  from  each  other,  to  the  great  loss  of  both. 

And  the  great  disruption  of  the  sixteenth  century,  which  shattered 
the  outward  organization  of  the  church  in  Europe,  was  a  religious 
revolution,  rendered  absolutely  necessary  by  the  intolerable  abuses 
and  corruptions  of  the  official  organization  of  the  church. 

There  is  no  better  way  to  describe  the  official  organization  of  the 
church  at  the  time  of  the  Eeformation  than  by  giving  it  a  name 
familiar  to  every  American  politician.  It  was  a  machine.  Now  a 
machine  is  a  political  organization  which  gets  control  of  a  great 
party  and  uses  that  party  for  its  own  purposes.  And  the  purpose  of 
the  machine  is  not  the  advancement  of  any  political  principle;  the 
sole  purpose  of  the  machine  is  plunder.  And  there  existed  in  Eome, 
at  the  time  of  the  Reformation,  a  machine,  beside  which  Tammany 
is  a  very  harmless  thing. 

The  official  organization  of  the  church  was  bent  solely  upon  its 
own  earthly  aggrandizement  and  enrichment.  The  dream  of  the 
older  and  greater  Popes  of  ruling  the  world  for  the  world's  good  had 


DISUNION    OF    CHRISTENDOM.  281 

passed  away ;  and  the  Poj)es  of  the  sixteenth  century  were  content  to 
tax  the  world  for  the  Pope's  good. 

It  is  impossible  here  to  enter  into  details.  It  is  the  thrice-threshed 
straw  of  history.  It  can  only  be  said  that  it  was  absolutely  necessary 
for  the  Christian  v/orld  to  break  that  machine,  if  Christianity  was  to 
live  in  the  world,  and  to  do  this  great  violence  was  required,  and  this 
violence  destroyed  not  only  the  machine,  but  also  for  the  time  being 
the  outward  unity  of  Western  Christendom.  But  the  loss  of  unity 
was  a  small  price  to  pay  for  that  great  deliverance. 

In  that  great  upheaval  the  theory  that  the  church's  life  centres  in 
the  official  organization  of  the  clmrch  received  its  death  blow.  Like 
all  great  ideas  that  have  once  possessed  the  human  mind  it  dies 
slowly,  but  it  is  dying ;  it  is  no  longer  in  Papal,  Episcopal  or  Pres- 
byterial  form  a  living,  workable  theory.  The  theory  which  is  gain- 
ing ground  every  day  is  the  theory  expressed  in  the  prayer  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  which  is  that  the  unity  of  the  Christian  people 
centres  in  the  Christian's  God  and  Lord,  and  that  on  earth  the  power 
of  the  Christian  Church  centres  in  the  Christian  people. 

But  I  hear  some  one  cry  all  this  is  mere  moonshine.  Such  a  unity 
is  no  unity  at  all.  It  is  without  power  to  control  the  disorderly  ele- 
ments of  the  world. 

But  take  care !  this  theory  of  unification  has  been  in  the  world  for 
four  hundred  years,  and  it  has  accomplished  more  for  the  advance- 
ment of  real  Christianity  than  the  other  theory  did  in  all  the  thou- 
sand years  of  its  existence.  It  has  banished  the  stake  and  the  gibbet 
from  the  church.  It  has  declared  the  equality  of  all  men  before  the 
law  of  God  and  secured  their  equality  before  the  law  of  man.  It 
has  driven  official  cruelty  from  the  world.  It  stands  to-day  an 
awful  power;  the  power  of  Christian  public  opinion;  behind  every 
Pope  and  every  bishop  and  every  priest,  holding  him  to  a  strict  ac- 
count for  his  acts. 

It  may  be  asked :  Is  this  unofficial  power  to  utterly  destroy  the  old 
official  life  of  the  church?  Certainly  not.  It  will  not  destroy,  but  it 
will  control.  And  it  is  our  part  to  hope  and  work  and  pray,  not  for 
a  revolution,  but  an  evolution.  "The  greatest  disaster  that  can  hap- 
pen to  any  life  or  institution  is  an  utter  break  with  its  past."  Let 
the  church  give  back  to  every  bishop  his  pastoral  staff  and  send  him 
forth  to  seek  the  lost  sheep  of  Christ ;  let  her  touch  the  lips  of  every 
priest  or  elder  with  a  coal  from  off  the  altar,  that  ho  may  speak 
burning  words  of  love  and  warning  to  the  people ;  let  her  reconstitute 


282  CHRISTENDOM. 

her  diaconate  and  send  it  forth  upon  its  errands  of  mercy.  And  for 
my  part,  I  pray  that  the  church  may  yet  save  the  Papacy ;  that  the 
Pope,  at  her  bidding,  may  yet  come  forth,  from  his  voluntary  prison 
in  the  Vatican,  and  be  once  more  a  shepherd,  in  the  midst  of  his 
sheep;  and  as  Queen  Victoria  sat  with  dignity,  as  constitutional 
Queen  over  a  great  constitutional  empire,  so  in  time  may  the  vener- 
able Bishop  of  Rome  come  to  sit  as  a  constitutional  primate  over  a 
great  constitutional  church. 

But  let  him  know,  and  let  every  bishop  and  priest  and  deacon  and 
minister  and  synod  and  general  convention  know,  that  the  theory 
that  the  unity  of  the  church  centres  in  him  or  in  them  has  perished. 

The  unity  of  the  church  centres  in  God  and  in  the  people  of  God. 
And  whatever  form  the  outward  organization  of  the  church  may 
take  in  the  future  it  will  be  a  form  in  which  the  Spirit  of  God  can 
work  and  the  voice  of  the  people  be  heard. 

For  the  present  mere  officialism  is  dead.  What  the  people  are 
seeking  is  not  St.  Peter's  successor,  but  St.  Peter.  If  they  do  not 
find  him  in  St.  Peter's  chair  they  will  look  for  him  in  the  darkest 
street  of  Rome.  And  the  great  need  of  the  church  is  not  an  apostolic 
succession,  but  a  succession  of  apostles.  If  it  does  not  find  these  in 
settled  apostolic  sees  it  will  seek  for  them  in  the  wildernesa 

DOCTRINAL  UNITY. 

The  second  theory  of  Christian  unity,  which  up  to  the  present  day 
has  been  of  universal  acceptance,  is  that  the  unity  of  the  church 
centres  in  her  doctrine;  that  her  members  are  made  one  by  their 
agreement  in  certain  intellectual  statements  concerning  the  facts  and 
principles  of  their  religion. 

This  theory  asserts  that  it  is  the  great  duty  of  the  church  to  set 
in  order  propositions  concerning  the  absolute  nature  of  God;  His 
attributes  and  final  purposes;  His  relations  to  creation  and  His  rela- 
tions to  man.  It  is  also  the  duty  of  the  church  to  define  with  scien- 
tific accuracy  the  inner  nature  of  Christ,  the  cause  and  effect  of  His 
death,  and  the  content  of  His  teaching. 

She  has  also  the  duty  of  defining  the  nature  of  man;  of  setting 
forth  his  relations  to  God  and  to  the  world,  and  of  describing  his 
past  history  and  declaring  his  future  destiny. 

These  various  departments  of  the  church's  doctrine  are  arranged 
with  all  the  formality  of  an  exact  science  under  various  heads,  such 
as  Theology,  Christology,  Anthropology  and  Eschatology.       And 


DISUNION    OF    CHEISTENDOM.  283 

when  the  church  has  formulated  a  statement  of  doctrine,  it  becomes, 
as  the  theologians  say,  de  -fide,  and  its  acceptance  the  highest  duty 
of  every  Christian.  To  question,  much  more  to  deny,  any  formula 
set  forth  by  proper  authority  is  the  greatest  crime  a  Christian  can 
commit.  Even  if  a  man  were  but  to  whisper  such  doubt  or  denial  in 
his  heart,  he  is  ipso  facto  excommunicated  in  this  world  and  damned 
in  the  next. 

And  for  ages  there  has  been  no  greater  act  of  daring  possible  to 
man  than  to  question  or  deny  received  doctrine.  He  braved  the  fate 
and  he  met  the  fate  of  one  whose  life  is  supposed  to  be  dangerous  to 
the  good  order  and  peace  of  the  community.  He  was  hunted  from 
house  and  home,  and  if  taken  suffered  a  violent  and  shameful  death. 

This  theory  of  the  church's  unity  in  a  common  doctrine  was  not  in 
conflict,  but  worked  together  with  the  other  theory  that  the  unity  of 
the  church  centred  in  her  official  organization. 

It  has,  since  the  fourth  century,  been  considered  the  chief  duty  of 
the  official  organization  of  the  Christian  Church  to  formulate  and 
enforce  doctrine.  Indeed,  so  long  has  this  theory  held  possession 
of  the  Christian  mind  that  to  doubt  or  deny  it  is,  in  the  popular 
judgment,  to  doubt  or  deny  the  existence  of  the  church  itself.  Chris- 
tian history  seems  to  prove  that  it  is  a  chief  function  of  the  church 
to  philosophize  upon  the  faith,  and  the  chief  duty  of  the  individual 
Christian  to  accept  the  conclusions  of  such  philosophy. 

From  the  councils  of  the  fourth  century  down  to  the  synods  of  the 
seventeenth,  and  the  councils  of  the  nineteenth,  the  whole  Christian 
world  has  spent  its  main  strength  in  an  effort  to  secure  intellectual 
agreement  concerning  the  most  abstruse  and  difficult  subjects  that 
the  human  mind  can  entertain. 

Before  the  fourth  century  the  main  purpose  of  the  church  was  to 
discipline  life;  to  make  men  pure  and  just  and  kind.  Since  the 
fourth  century  the  main  purpose  of  the  church  has  been  to  discipline 
intellect,  to  reduce  the  intellectual  conceptions  of  humanity  to  a  com- 
mon form,  so  that  they  can  be  accepted  ready-made,  and  thus  lead 
all  men  to  say  the  same  words  and  think  the  same  thoughts.  In- 
deed, it  was  the  church's  task  and  purpose  to  render  thinking  un- 
necessary to  the  great  mass  of  men.  It  was,  and  in  the  minds  of 
many  to-day  it  is,  the  duty  of  the  official  organization  to  think  for 
the  rest  of  the  people. 

Now,  great  as  is  this  task  of  intellectual  discipline,  it  is  an  infi- 
nitely easier  one  than  the  task  of  moral  discipline  that  preceded  it. 


284  CHRISTENDOM. 

When  the  church  made  her  peace  with  the  world  in  the  days  of 
the  Emperor  Constantine,  when  she  became  the  established  church 
and  the  popular  religion,  she  suffered  the  consequences  of  her  estab- 
lishment and  popularity.  Membership  in  the  church  was  an  easy 
way  to  favor  with  the  court  and  popularity  in  the  world,  and  millions 
sought  the  communion  of  the  church  and  many  the  dignity  of  the 
episcopate  for  what  there  was  in  it,  by  way  of  honor  and  ease,  for 
themselves. 

The  consequence  of  this  influx  from  the  world  was  a  relaxation  of 
the  church's  moral  discipline.  She  found  it  impossible  to  regulate 
the  morality  of  this  mixed  multitude,  as  she  had  regulated  the  moral 
life  of  the  select  few,  who  were  hers,  in  the  days  of  her  exclusion 
and  seclusion. 

The  moral  discipline  of  the  church  was,  in  a  large  measure,  de- 
stroyed by  the  worldliness  consequent  upon  her  popularity,  but  more 
by  the  diversion  of  the  mind  of  the  church  from  the  moral  to  the 
intellectual  sphere.  She  had  a  great  discipline  after  the  fourth  cen- 
tury, but  it  was  the  discipline  of  the  mind,  rather  than  of  the  soul 
and  the  spirit. 

And  this  last  is,  as  we  have  said,  a  much  easier  task  than  the  first. 
Few  men  care  to  think ;  all  men  love  to  sin. 

To  secure  intellectual  conformity  it  is  only  necessary  to  silence, 
discourage  or  kill  the  few  thinkers.  But  to  secure  moral  uniformity 
on  the  high  plane  of  Christian  morality  requires  a  radical  change  in 
every  human  heart. 

It  is  not  a  matter  of  wonder  that  when  the  church  lost  her  moral 
zeal  in  consequence  of  her  worldly  prosperity,  she  sought  to  make 
up  for  it  by  an  increased  intellectual  zeal.  And  until  this  day  the 
zeal  of  the  church  for  her  own  corporate  greatness  and  for  her  own 
intellectual  formula  has  been  as  great,  if  not  greater,  than  her  zeal 
for  the  moral  purity  and  the  spiritual  advancement  of  her  people. 

And  when  the  church  entered  upon  this  task  of  regulating  by 
formula  the  thoughts  of  men,  she  continued  in  it  until  her  formula 
covered  every  region  of  human  thought. 

There  was,  as  some  think,  a  gradual  development  of  Christian 
doctrine,  or,  as  others  think,  an  encroachment  of  Christian  dogma, 
until  everything  about  which  a  man  could  think  was  a  closed  ques- 
tion ;  settled  by  the  decisions  of  the  Christian  official  organization. 

Thi.<;  organization  was  terribly  successful  in  its  enforcement  of 
intellectual  uniformity.     For  ages  it  held  the  mind  of  man  in  thrall. 


DISUNION    OF    CHRISTENDOM.  285 

For  ten  centuries  the  Western  Christian  mind  did  nothing  but  mark 
time.  It  was  in  motion  but  like  Gehazi,  tlie  servant  of  Elisha,  "it 
went  no  whither."  It  was  active,  but  its-  activity  was  without  re- 
sult, because  it  was  forbidden  to  inquire  into  fundamental  principles, 
to  look  facts  in  the  face  or  to  question  the  validity  of  received 
opinion. 

It  could  only  discuss  its  own  discussions  and  define  more  nicely  its 
own  definitions. 

The  modern  world  differs  from  the  Byzantine  and  mediaeval,  be- 
cause in  it  two  great  regions  of  human  thought  have  been  delivered 
from  under  the  hand  of  the  Christian  official  organization,  and  a 
third  is  in  process  of  deliverance.  In  that  historical  movement 
known  as  the  Renaissance,  art  and  letters  escaped  from  under  the 
control  of  the  official  organization  of  the  church.  The  heads  of  that 
organization  gave  freedom  to  artists  and  to  men  of  letters.  By  their 
permission  and  encouragement  men  were  permitted  to  paint  the 
human  form  as  it  is,  rather  than  the  old  Byzantine  symbol  of  that 
form;  and  they  were  at  liberty  to  apply  to  the  remains  of  ancient 
learning  the  principles  of  scientific  literary  criticism,  and  so  to  ac- 
quire an  accurate  knowledge  of  the  thoughts  and  life  of  the  ancient 
world. 

This  freedom  of  art  and  letters  was  won  easily,  because  this  free- 
dom did  not  interfere  with  the  domination  of  the  official  organiza- 
tion of  the  church,  and  more  because  Popes  and  cardinals  dearly 
loved  a  good  picture  and  a  good  story ;  and  were  wise  enough  to  see 
that  only  by  leaving  each  man  free  to  follow  his  own  fancy  could  a 
good  picture  be  painted  or  good  stories  be  written. 

The  next  great  region  of  human  thought  did  not  win  its  freedom 
without  a  struggle.  When  men  began  to  use  their  own  eyes  and 
ears ;  to  look  at  the  sights  of  the  outward  world  and  listen  carefully 
to  its  sounds,  they  began  to  see  that  the  facts  were  in  conflict  with 
received  theories.  So  these  men  began  to  put  forth  new  theories 
more  in  accordance  with  the  facts.  They  began  to  speak  of  the 
earth's  motion,  to  say  of  it  that  it  was  only  one  in  an  infinite  number 
of  worlds ;  to  speak  of  the  world's  great  age,  to  number  its  years  by 
the  million  instead  of  by  the  thousand.  These  statements  as  they 
came  forth,  one  by  one,  created  the  greatest  consternation.  They 
were  supposed  to  be  not  only  in  conflict  with,  but  utterly  destructive 
of,  Christian  truth  and  Christian  life. 

The  official  organization  of  the  church  put  forth  its  whole  power 


286  CHRISTENDOM. 

to  crush  these  new  opinions.  And  we  know  the  result.  Again,  it  is 
not  necessary  to  go  into  details.  The  official  organization  was  beaten 
at  every  point.  Scientific  thought  has  won  for  itself  absolute  free- 
dom. No  one  to-day  dreams  of  looking  to  the  official  organization 
of  the  church  to  settle  any  question  of  astronomy  or  geology,  of 
biology  or  chronology;  such  questions  are  settled  in  these  days  by 
scientific  men  and  by  scientific  processes. 

The  only  thing  we  have  to  fear  for  science  is  that  it  will,  by  the 
great  power  which  its  freedom  has  given  it,  create  a  new  tyranny. 
But  however  he  may  use  his  power,  to-day  the  man  of  science  is  free. 
The  whole  visible  world  of  nature  and  the  inward  world  of  man  is 
open  to  free  investigation  and  speculation. 

The  only  region  of  human  thought  which  is  now,  in  any  respect, 
dominated  by  the  official  organization  of  the  church,  is  that 
which  has  to  do  with  man's  relations  to  God  and  the  world  to 
come. 

This  region  the  official  organization  claims  as  its  own  and  warns 
from  it  every  intruder.  It  claims  the  right  to  define  with  the  utmost 
precision  just  what  each  man  shall  think,  and  it  asserts  for  its  de- 
cisions infinite  consequence;  except  a  man  believe  them  he  shall 
perish  everlastingly. 

Scientific  theology  is  supposed  to  be  separated  from  all  other 
sciences.  It  is  admitted  that  they  are  progressive,  but  asserted  that 
theology  is  not  progressive.  The  official  organization  of  the  church 
has  at  various  times  undertaken  to  do  the  thinking,  not  only  for  its 
own  age,  but  for  all  ages  to  come. 

The  theory  is  that  God,  at  a  certain  time,  made  a  final  revelation 
to  man,  and  that  the  official  organization  of  the  church,  at  another 
time,  officially  interpreted  that  revelation;  and  that  ever  afterward 
the  only  thing  the  human  mind  has  had  to  do  is  to  think  what  had 
been  thought  and  to  say  what  had  been  said. 

There  is,  of  course,  a  certain  truth  in  this  theory.  There  is  in  the 
intellectual,  as  in  the  moral  world,  such  a  thing  as  settled  questions 
— without  this  no  progress  is  possible.  But  the  integrity  of  the 
human  mind  requires  that  every  intellectual  question  shall  be  settled 
by  intpllectnal  processes,  not  by  knocking  the  other  side  down  with  a 
club,  or  voting  him  out  by  a  majority,  but  by  convincing  his  reason. 
The  law  of  the  intellect  also  requires  that  even  every  settled  question 
shall  always  be  an  open  question. 

There  is  no  received  opinion  that  is  not  by  this  law  required  to 


DISUNION    OP    CHEISTENDOM.  287 

come,  at  any  moment,  into  the  court  of  human  inquiry  and  show  the 
proof  of  its  right  to  exist. 

The  official  organization  of  the  church  has  attempted  again  and 
again  to  act  in  conflict  with  this  law  of  the  human  reason.  It  has 
made  its  statements  of  truth  and  denied  the  right  of  man,  under  the 
pains  and  penalties  of  eternal  damnation,  to  ever  question  these 
statements. 

Two  consequences  follow.  A  certain  number  of  men  question  and 
the  official  organization  condemns  them  and  casts  them  out ;  the  vast 
unthinking  mass  do  not  question,  and  to  them  the  statements  are  as 
dead  letters — they  are  received,  but  they  are  not  assimilated. 

The  attempt  of  the  official  organization  of  the  church  to  make  its 
statements  final  is,  historically  considered,  a  failure.  It  has  again 
and  again  put  forth  statements  of  doctrine  which  it  claimed  were  the 
final  utterances  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  from  which  nothing  was  ever  to 
be  taken  away,  and  to  which  nothing  was  ever  to  be  added ;  but  before 
the  ink  was  dry  with  which  the  writing  of  these  statements  was  made, 
some  new  question,  deeply  affecting  the  whole  problem,  rose  up  and 
would  not  down  until  a  new  settlement  was  made. 

The  effort  of  the  official  organization  has  been  to  cover  the  whole 
ground  of  possible  theological  opinion  by  statements  de  fide.  In 
consequence  we  see  the  creed  in  a  constant  state  of  elaboration  and 
enlargement.  When  we  compare  the  simple  statements  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  and  even  of  St.  Paul  with  the  statements  of  the  councils  of  the 
fourth  century,  and  these  with  the  confessions  and  articles  of  re- 
ligion of  the  Reformation  period,  we  can  see  how  steady  has  been 
tJie  encroachment  of  official  authority  upon  the  region  of  free 
opinion. 

The  Reformation,  in  its  ecclesiastical  aspect  and  in  its  intellectual 
life,  was  really  a  reversion.  The  Reformers  broke  the  Papal  machine, 
only  to  put  a  machine  of  their  own  in  its  room.  They  established 
an  intellectual  tyranny  even  more  galling  than  that  of  the  Pope. 
One  might  with  dignity  submit  his  intelligence  to  a  great  and  vener- 
able church,  but  not  to  a  conventicle  of  fanatics  or  to  a  self-ap- 
pointed dogmatist.  To-day  the  official  organization  of  Presbyter- 
lanism,  and  Lutheranism,  and  of  Methodism,  and  of  the  Baptists,  is 
as  inimical  to  intellectual  and  spiritual  freedom  as  the  Roman  or- 
ganization. 

The  only  official  organization  that  seems  to-day  at  all  friendly  to 
freedom  is  the  organization  of  the  Anglican  Church,  and,  perhaps. 


288  CHRISTENDOM. 

the  only  reason  for  this  is  that  the  Anglican  machine  is  out  of  order 
and  won't  work. 

And  for  tliis  reason  also  that  machine  is  at  the  present  moment 
the  safest.  For,  if  machines  are  dangerous,  the  less  you  use  them 
the  safer  it  is. 

It  is  both  the  strength  and  weakness  of  the  Anglican  Communion 
that  the  various  forces  of  her  organization  are  so  balanced  that  no 
one  can  control  the  others. 

REUNION  OF  THE  CHURCH  IN  GOD  AND  IN  HUMANITY. 

We  may  conclude  by  saying  that  the  effort  to  centre  the  unity  of 
the  church  in  her  own  intellectual  statements  has  failed  even  more 
signally  than  the  effort  to  centre  her  unity  in  her  own  official  organi- 
zation. And  the  hope  of  so  centering  the  unity  of  the  church  has 
gone  forever. 

The  mind  of  man  has  emancipated  itself  and  it  will  never  be  re- 
enslaved. 

You  can  to-day,  by  petty  persecution,  drive  the  thinking  man 
from  one  Christian  communion  to  another,  you  may  drive  him  out  of 
all  Christian  communion,  but  you  cannot  drive  him  from  thinking. 

And  in  this  fact  I  see  the  hope  of  the  church  and  the  hope  of 
humanity.  God  has  a  word  to  say  to  us,  as  He  has  had  a  word  to 
say  to  our  forefathers.  And  who  can  tell  to  whom  that  word  will 
come? 

In  all  the  history  of  the  world  it  has  never  come  to  an  official 
organization.  Truth  is  never  discovered  in  committee.  The  word 
of  God  comes  to  the  prophet  in  the  wilderness,  truth  is  the  reward 
of  the  lonely  watcher.  Let  us  not  stone  the  speaker  of  the  word, 
lest  we  be  stoning  the  messenger  of  God ;  let  us  not  kill  the  watcher, 
lest,  with  him,  we  kill  the  truth  of  God. 

It  is  my  belief  that  the  twentieth  century  will  see  a  great  unifica- 
tion of  Christendom,  a  merging  of  all  present  forms  into  a  higher 
form.     The  movement  will  come  from  below,  not  from  above. 

Official  organizations  may  be  standing  still,  but  the  people  are 
moving.  Already  there  is  a  great  unity  in  which  all  Christians  are 
one.  It  is  a  union  in  God.  To-day  men  pass  easily  from  church  to 
church,  and  from  denomination  to  denomination,  and  so  are  learn- 
ing that  the  various  Christian  bodies  are  but  the  keepers  of  a  com- 
mon Christianity.     And  as  the  citizen  of  the  smallest  state  in  the 


DISUNION    OF    CHRISTENDOM.  289 

Union  of  the  United  States  has  his  right  to  the  larger  citizenship  in 
the  great  Republic,  so  the  member  of  the  most  obscure  sect,  if  he  be 
really  united  to  God,  has  his  right  to  membership  in  that  larger 
communion  of  which  God  is  the  unifying  centre. 

No  one  to-day  would  dare  to  question  the  essential  godliness, 
Christianity  and  final  salvation  of  Vincent  De  Paul  or  John  Wesley, 
of  John  Henry  Newman,  or  John  Keble,  of  Savonarola,  or  St. 
Charles  Borromeo,  or  St.  Francis  Xavier,  or  Michael  Faraday,  of 
William  Wordsworth  or  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson. 

These  men,  though  separated  from  each  other  by  difference  of 
opinion  and  difference  of  outward  Christian  communion,  or  non- 
communion,  were  united  in  a  grander  union  of  life.  They  all  loved 
the  truth ;  and  they  all  lived  the  truth.  And  he  who  loves  the  truth 
loves  God. 

Dear  Dr.  Pusey  used  to  say  that  he  hoped  to  die  in  the  communion 
of  the  Catholic  Church  before  its  division  into  the  East  and  the 
West.  I  have  even  a  larger  hope  than  this ;  by  God's  grace  I  hope  to 
die  in  the  communion  of  the  Church  of  God;  that  congregation  of 
God's  people  which  began  to  be  in  the  days  of  Enos,  the  son  of  Seth, 
"when  men  began  to  call  on  the  name  of  the  Lord,"  and  will  not  have 
its  consummation  until  all  mankind  are  gathered  into  the  presence 
of  the  Lord. 

It  cannot  be  that  the  love  of  the  Father  will  forever  disappoint 
the  expectation  of  the  Son.  Unless  all  signs  fail,  a  belief  in  Jesus 
Christ  as  the  spiritual  head  and  centre  of  the  human  race  is  the  goal 
of  human  thought,  and  a  union,  through  Him,  with  God,  the  end  of 
human  life. 


CHURCH  UNION  MOVEMENTS^ 


Bishop  John  Fletcher  Hurst,  D.D.,  LL.D., 

WASHINGTON. 

[Disputes  and  quarrels,  dissensions  and  jars, 
And  the  sound  of  fighting,  and  civil  wars; 
And,  ere  the  morning,  brother  and  brother, 
Instead  of  the  enemy,  fought  with  each  other. 

***** 
Over  the  hill,  the  foe,  in  glee, 
Listened  and  laughed.     "Ho,  ho !"  quoth  he. 
"There  is  strife  in  the  enemy's  ranks,  I  see, 
And  the  bright  red  beams  of  the  rising  sun 
Will  see  a  victory  easily  won. 
It  matters  little  how  strong  the  foe. 
This  is  a  truth  we  all  do  know  : 
There  is  no  success  without  unity. 
However  noble  the  cause  may  be. 
The  day  is  ours  before  it's  begun. 
Ho !  for  the  triumph  so  easily  won." 

And  on  the  morrow,  the  ranks  of  the  Right 

Were  routed  and  beaten,  and  put  to  flight. 

And  the  Wrong  was  the  victor,  and  gained  the  fight. 

—Unidentified. — Ed.] 
*  *  * 

DIVISION    OF    GREEK    AND    LATIN    CHURCHES. 

The  iconoclastic  dispute,  which,  beginning  under  Leo  III,  the 
Isaurian,  in  727,  lasted  for  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  years,  is 
enough  to  prove  how  widely  apart  the  East  and  West  were  drifting, 
and  how  grave  and  irreconcilable  were  the  points  of  discord.  They 
had,  indeed,  been  growing  apart  for  centuries.  The  very  type  of 
mind  in  the  East  was  contemplative,  metaphysical,  hair-splitting; 
the  West  was  practical,  legal,  progressive.  This  difference  of  tem- 
perament was  not  in  itself  a  sufficient  cause  of  the  separation,  but, 
intensified  by  time,  it  was  ample  to  overcome  the  natural  bonds  of 
sympathy,  and  thus  prevent  each  from  seeing  the  other's  point  of 
view. 

The  first  element  of  difference  was  doctrinal.  Originally,  this 
chiefly  centered  around  the  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Spirit's  procession 

290 


CHURCH    UNION    MOVEMENTS.  291 

from  the  Father — the  Filioque  controversy.  The  Nicene  Creed  ran 
simply,  "I  believe  in  the  Holy  Ghost."  At  the  second  general  coun- 
cil, that  at  Constantinople  (381),  this  clause  was  added,  "Who  pro- 
ceedeth  from  the  Father."  The  third  general  council,  at  Ephesus 
(431),  ordered  that  it  should  not  be  lawful  to  make  any  additions 
to  the  creed.  Some  of  the  Western  fathers,  however,  taught  that 
the  Spirit  proceeds  from  the  Son  as  well  as  from  the  Father.  The 
Filioque  clause  had  been,  in  fact,  introduced  into  the  creed  in  Spain 
and  France,  and  recited  in  the  churches.  The  Popes  did  not  at  first 
favor  this.  Pope  Leo  III  (795-816)  censured  this  departure  from 
the  original  form,  and,  in  order  to  emphasize  the  importance  of  the 
exact  words  of  the  true  creed,  caused  the  creed  of  Constantinople  to 
be  engraved  on  silver  plates  in  Greek  and  Latin,  and  thus  to  be 
publicly  displayed  in  the  church.  Pope  Nicholas  I  (858-867),  how- 
ever, with  the  true  infallible  instinct,  authorized  the  addition.  For 
this  the  West  was  condemned  in  879,  at  Constantinople,  at  what  the 
Greeks  call  the  eighth  general  council.  This  disregard  of  the  an- 
cient formularies  of  the  church,  which  were  to  them  as  dear  as  life, 
mortally  offended  the  Greeks,  and  they  could  hold  no  communion 
with  a  church  which  had  thus  added  to  the  faith. 

The  extraordinary  pretensions  of  Rome  were  reached  in  a  letter 
by  Pope  Nicholas  I  to  the  Emperor  Michael  the  Sot  in  the  Photian 
controversy.  The  Pope  dwelt  with  unbounded  confidence  upon  the 
privileges-  of  the  Holy  See,  their  eternal  and  unchangeable  charac- 
ter, their  divine  origin,  and  their  absolute  independence  of  all  hu- 
man or  even  ecclesiastical  ordinance.  "The  Roman  Church,"  he 
wrote,  "encompasses  and  comprehends  within  herself  all  the  nations 
of  mankind,  she  being  in  herself  the  universal  church,  the  mirror 
and  model  of  that  which  she  embraceth  with  her  bosom.  To  Peter, 
and  to  Peter  alone,  was  committed  the  command  to  kill  and  eat,  as 
in  like  manner  he  alone,  of  all  the  Apostles,  received  the  Divine  com- 
mand to  draw  to  the  shore  the  net  full  of  fishes.  Unto  us  has  been 
committed  that  identical  commission  to  embrace  in  our  paternal 
arms  the  whole  flock  of  Christ."  Nicholas  was  the  first  Pope  to 
promulgate  or  formally  recognize  the  forged  decretals,  and  these 
gave  to  claims  which  had  before  been  vaguely  and  tentatively  held 
the  authority  of  unbroken  tradition.  These  novel  and  extravagant 
pretensions  formed  a  deep  gulf  between  the  East  and  the  West. 

We  pass  over  the  intervening  disputes  and  come  to  the  final  break 
in  1054.     The  high-handed  bigot,  the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople, 


292  CHRISTENDOM. 

Michael  Cemlarius,  closed  all  the  churches  in  the  city  where  the 
Latin  rites  were  used.  In  conjunction  with  Leo  of  Achrida,  the 
metropolitan  of  the  Bulgarians,  he  addressed  an  epistle  to  John, 
Bishop  of  Trani,  in  Apulia,  which  was  also  to  be  sent  to  the  Western 
clergy  and  to  the  Pope  himself.  In  this  epistle,  Luther-like,  he 
drew  up  a  formal  accusation  of  heresy  against  the  Latin  Church. 
He  charged  the  Latins  with  the  use  of  unleavened  bread  in  the 
Lord's  Supper — azyma — the  use  of  blood  and  things  strangled,  and 
fasting  on  the  Sabbath  (Saturday)  in  Lent,  and  called  on  the  West- 
em  bishops  to  separate  from  the  see  of  Eome.  After  various  at- 
tempts at  reconciliation  the  papal  legates  formally  laid  on  the  altar 
of  the  Church  of  St.  Sophia  a  sentence  of  excommunication  against 
the  Eastern  Church  (1054),  which  Michael  Cerularius  and  the 
other  patriarchs  solemnly  returned. 

FIRST  ATTEMPTS  AT  REUNION. 

Nevertheless,  many  attempts  were  made  toward  reunion,  and  some 
almost  bore  fruit.  Latin  theologians  were  allowed  to  argue  their 
case  before  the  Court  of  Constantinople.  Political  exigencies  led 
the  Emperor  Michael  Paleologus  to  offer  terms  of  surrender  to  the 
Pope.  At  the  Council  of  Lyons  (1274),  the  Eastern  delegates  re- 
peated the  creed  with  the  addition  of  the  Filioque,  and  swore  to 
conform  to  the  faith  of  the  Roman  Church,  and  to  recognize  the  su- 
premacy of  the  Pope.  They  were  allowed  to  use  the  creed  without 
the  addition,  and  to  practice  their  peculiar  ecclesiastical  customs. 
The  Greeks  were  thoroughly  enraged  at  these  measures,  and  to  bring 
them  to  terms  the  emperor  resorted  to  the  usual  punishments  of 
these  times — punishments  which  the  iconoclastic  and  Photian  dis- 
turbances made  familiar,  such  as  scourging,  mutilation,  blinding  and 
imprisonment.  But  with  the  next  emperor  the  Lyons  union  was 
thrown  to  the  winds. 

At  the  Council  of  Florence  (1438)  the  last  effort  was  made.  The 
emperor,  John  VII,  Paleologus,  went  personally  with  the  cultured 
and  able  archbishop,  Bessarion  of  Nicaea,  and  many  bishops,  to  this 
council,  called  the  eighteenth  ecumenical  by  the  Latins.  Here 
everything  was  at  last  arranged  satisfactorily.  The  Pope  was  ac- 
knowledged as  the  "successor  of  Peter,  the  chief  of  the  apostles,  and 
the  vicar  of  Christ,  the  head  of  the  whole  church,  and  father  and 
teacher  of  all  Christians,  to  whom  plenary  power  was  given  by  our 
I^rd  Jesus  Christ  to  feed,  rule  and  govern  the  universal  church  in 


CHURCH    UNION    MOVEMENTS.  293 

such  a  way  as  is  set  forth  in  the  ecumenical  councils  and  sacred 
canons,"  which  the  Greeks  interpreted  mainly  as  referring  to  the 
canons  of  Nicsea  and  Chalcedon,  but  which  the  Latins  interpreted 
mainly  as  referring  to  the  pseudo-Isidorian  decretals.  In  most  of 
the  Greek  texts  of  the  Florentine  articles  the  parts  defining  the  pri- 
macy of  the  Pope  are  either  wanting  or  essentially  modified.  It 
was  admitted  that  the  doctrine  of  the  procession  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
as  defined  by  the  Greek  Church,  from  the  Father  through  the  Son, 
was  really  the  same  as  the  Latin  formula,  from  the  Father  and  the 
Son,  but  the  Western  doctrine  was  maintained  in  the  explanation: 
"The  Holy  Spirit  proceeds  from  the  Father  and  at  the  same  time 
from  the  Son,  and  from  both  eternally  as  from  one  principle  and 
one  spiration." 

After  long  disputes  the  Greeks  surrendered  also  on  the  doctrines 
of  purgatory  and  the  seven  sacraments.  On  his  part  the  Pope, 
Eugenius  IV,  promised  that  ships  and  men  should  be  provided  for 
the  defense  of  Constantinople  against  the  Turks,  and  that  he  would 
induce  the  rulers  of  the  West  to  come  to  the  rescue  of  the  Greeks. 
The  Pope,  the  emperor  and  the  bishops  subscribed  to  the  edict  amid 
wild  rejoicings  and  shoutings,  July  6,  1438.  But  once  more  it  was 
all  in  vain.  The  promised  supports  from  the  West  did  not  come. 
The  people  were  bitter  against  their  emperor  and  the  bishops  and 
clergy  who  favored  the  union.  The  churches  where  these  minis- 
tered were  deserted.  On  May  29,  1453,  Constantinople  fell  before 
Mohammed  II,  and  the  last  emperor,  Constantine  IX,  went  down 
in  a  brave  fight  against  great  odds.  Mohammed  confirmed  the  con- 
stitution of  the  churches,  giving  the  primacy  over  the  whole  East- 
ern Christendom  to  the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople.  Many  of  the 
Greeks  went  into  Italy,  Hungary,  Poland  and  other  countries,  and 
united  with  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  or,  under  the  name  of  the 
United  Greeks,  formed  churches  of  their  own,  being  allowed  to  keep 
their  old  liturgy  and  customs  by  accepting  the  Roman  doctrine  and 
the  Papal  primacy. 

IRENIC  MOVEMENTS  SINCE  THE  REFORMATION.* 

The  Reformation  had,  in  1530,  grown  to  such  proportions  that 
both  the  Emperor  Charles  V  and  Pope  Clement  VII  felt  it  neces- 

*Much  of  what  follows  is  taken  from  an  article  on  the  same  subject  in  the 
volume  entitled  "Church  Unity,"  published  by  Charles  Scribner's  Sons,  1890, 
and  consisting  of  jSve  lectures  delivered  at  the  Union  Theological  Seminary, 
New  York. 


294  CHKISTENDOM. 

sary  to  proceed  in  a  spirit  of  conciliation.  The  emperor  now  began 
his  efforts  for  a  reunion  of  the  divided  church.  After  all  the  re- 
forms introduced  by  the  Lutherans,  they  still  claimed  to  belong  to 
the  Eoman  Catholic  Church.  The  hopes  of  the  emperor  did  not 
therefore  seem  unfounded.  The  Protestants  succeeded  in  having 
the  ecclesiastical  differences  considered  first,  and  their  efforts  were 
directed  toward  a  justification  of  their  previous  conduct.  This  har- 
monized, in  spirit  at  least,  with  the  purpose  of  the  emperor  to  do 
away  with  the  ecclesiastical  schism  and  to  unite  the  parties  in  a  har- 
monious comprehension  of  Christian  truth. 

The  pugnacious  disposition  of  Eck,  who  laid  before  the  emperor 
a  bitter  attack  upon  the  Protestants  of  all  schools,  was  at  this  point 
the  only  visible  hindrance.  The  emperor  himself  made  the  Apos- 
tles' Creed  the  test  as  to  correctness  of  doctrines. 

Melanchthon  strove  earnestly  to  meet  the  emperor's  conciliatory 
tone  by  carefully  expurgating,  from  the  confession  which  he  pre- 
pared, all  unnecessarily  harsh  expressions,  by  yielding  all  that  he 
possibly  could,  and  by  omitting  all  mention  of  some  of  the  principal 
articles  of  tlie  Protestant  faith ;  but  in  vain.  He  continued  his 
efforts  so  long  and  with  so  many  concessions  that  the  Eomanists 
had  good  hope  of  winning  him  back  to  their  cause.  All  efforts  at 
reunion  failed,  since,  however  much  the  reformers  yielded,  the  Ro- 
man Catholic  theologians  still  demanded  more.  Besides,  the  Pope's 
legate  called  the  attention  of  Charles  to  the  omission  of  several 
points  of  Protestant  belief.  This  the  Protestants  would  not  deny. 
At  length  the  emperor  himself  laid  a  confession  before  the  diet,  in 
which  he  declared  the  Protestants  to  be  refuted,  and  which  he  re- 
quired them  to  accept.  This  aroused  the  ire  and  spirit  of  inde- 
pendence of  the  Protestant  princes,  and  proved  how  foolish  had 
been  the  attempt  of  the  Protestant  theologians  to  satisfy  the  Ro- 
man Catholic  demands. 

THE  FORMULA  OF  CONCORD  BETWEEN  CONTENDING  GERMAN 
PROTESTANTS. 

The  attempt  to  make  it  appear  that  Luther  and  Melanchthon 
agreed  in  their  doctrine  was  not  pleasing  to  the  strict  Lutherans. 
Nevertheless,  enough  had  been  done  to  prepare  the  way  for  the  more 
complete  victory  which  was  secured  by  means  of  the  Formula  of 
Concord.     This  was  early  encouraged  by  Duke  Christopher  of  Wiir- 


CHURCH    XJNION    MOVEMENTS.  296 

temberg.  He  was  at  first  aided  by  Duke  Julius  of  Braunschweig 
and  Landgrave  William,  the  eldest  son  of  Philip  of  Hesse.  The 
theologian  to  whom,  more  than  any  other,  the  final  adoption  of  the 
Formula  of  Concord  is  due,  was  Jacob  Andreae.  The  first  efforts 
resulted  in  failure.  In  1574,  however,  Andres  prepared  what  is 
known  as  the  Tiibingen  Book,  or  the  Swabian  Concordia.  The 
views  of  the  lower  Saxon  theologians  were  afterward  incorporated 
with  it,  under  the  name  of  the  Swabian-Saxon  Concordia.  This 
was  now  abbreviated  and  adopted,  under  the  name  of  the  Maulbronn 
Formula,  by  the  theologians  of  Wiirtemberg  and  Baden,  in  council 
at  Maulbronn,  January,  157G.  This  work,  which  had  been  under- 
taken at  the  instigation  of  Elector  Augustus,  was  sent  to  him,  to- 
gether with  the  Swabian-Saxon  Concordia.  He  called  a  conven- 
tion of  theologians  at  Lichtenberg  in  February,  1576,  and  found 
them  ready  to  make  any  reasonable  concessions  for  the  sake  of  peace. 
A  convention  of  theologians  from  the  electorates  of  Saxony  and 
Brandenburg,  including  Chemnitz,  Selnecker,  Chrytraus,  Musculus, 
and  Christopher  Korner,  met  in  Torgau,  and,  with  the  Swabian- 
Saxon  Concordia  as  a  basis,  produced  the  Torgau  Book  in  May  and 
June,  1576.  The  Concordia  had  mentioned  Melanchthon  with  hon- 
or, but  in  the  Torgau  Book  this  mention  was  omitted,  while  the 
whole  work  was  more  strictly  Lutheran.  Few,  however,  were  satis- 
fied. To  some  it  appeared  too  severe  against  Melanchthon;  to 
others  the  distinction  between  Lutheranism  and  Philipism  was  ob- 
jectionable. Some  wanted  Melanchthon  to  be  expressly  condemned ; 
others  thought  both  the  Melanchthonians  and  Flacians  ought  to  be 
included  in  the  condemnation.  At  the  Convent  of  Bergen,  near 
Magdeburg,  the  Torgau  Book  was  revised  into  the  Bergen  Book, 
more  in  accord  with  criticism  which  had  been  made.  This  was  in 
March  to  May,  1577.  Andres  had  made  an  epitome  of  the  Torgau 
Book,  which  the  same  theologians  now  revised  and  approved.  In 
the  Bergen  Book  the  traces  of  Philipism  almost  totally  disappeared. 
It  was  hastily  signed  by  many.  Objections  which  had  been  made 
known  after  the  signatures  of  such  large  numbers  had  been  attached 
could  only  be  noticed  in  a  preface,  which  was  prepared  at  the  con- 
vention in  Smalcald,  in  1578,  and  Jiiterbock  in  January  and  June, 
1579.  In  February,  1580,  the  final  Formula  of  Concord  was  adopt- 
ed at  the  Convent  of  Bergen,  and  on  June  25,  1580,  the  fiftieth 
anniversary  of  the  Augsburg  Confession,  it  was  solemnly  published 
at  Dresden  by  Elector  Augustus.     It  had  been  signed  by  fifty-one 


296  CHRISTENDOM. 

princes  and  lords,  thirty-five  cities,  and  about  nine  thousand  the-' 
ologians. 

There  were,  however,  many  who  for  various  reasons  declined  to 
subscribe,  including  Schleswig-Holstein,  Hesse,  Pomerania,  Anhalt, 
and  Silesia,  together  with  the  cities  of  Frankfort-on-the-Main, 
Spires,  Worms,  Magdeburg,  Nuremberg,  Nordhausen,  and  Stras- 
burg.  Duke  Julius  of  Braunschweig  became  offended  and  refused 
to  sign  because  he  had  been  censured  for  allowing  his  three  sons 
to  receive  emoluments  at  the  hands  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church. 
The  King  of  Denmark  refused  to  allow  its  publication  in  his  realm, 
and  with  his  own  hand  threw  two  richly  bound  copies,  sent  him  by 
his  sister,  the  Electress  of  Saxony,  into  the  chimney  fire. 

The  Formula  of  Concord  became  an  apple  of  discord.  Its  adop- 
tion and  promulgation,  though  enacted  with  good  intentions,  was 
a  high-handed  act.  It  violently  interdicted  free  thought,  and  gave 
the  Lutheran  Church  for  a  long  time  to  come  a  direction  as  truly 
dogmatic  and  uncharitable  as  the  Roman  Church,  from  which  it  had 
sprung.  But  the  worst  feature  of  all  was  the  confirmation  of  the 
division  between  Calvinism  and  Lutheranism.  The  predestinarian- 
ism  of  the  Formula  of  Concord  and  of  Calvinism  were  but  slightly 
different,  but  the  divergence  was  found  in  the  doctrine  of  the  Lord's 
Supper,  and  in  the  practical  features  of  church  life.  Yet  the  Luth- 
erans openly  professed  themselves  more  favorable  to  Romanism  than 
to  Calvinism. 

EFFORTS  FOE  THE  UNION  OP  THE  REFORMED  AND  LUTHERANS. 

The  Reformed  Church  was  ever  willing  to  effect  a  union  with  the 
Lutherans,  and  although  the  latter  were  generally  bitter  in  their 
opposition  to  such  a  union,  there  were  enough  of  a  contrary  mind 
to  mark  a  distinct  phase  in  the  church  life  of  the  period. 

In  the  same  way  it  was,  that  from  the  Palatinate  in  which  the 
Reformed  tendency  prevailed,  came  efforts  at  union.  Francis  Jun- 
ius favored  the  cessation  of  strife  about  points  which  had  been 
sufliciently  discussed,  particularly  because  of  the  dangers  to  which 
the  Protestants  were  exposed  (1592  and  1606).  Still  later  (1614) 
David  Parous,  professor  in  Heidelberg,  declared  that  nothing  should 
be  held  obligatory  which  did  not  necessarily  proceed  from  the  Bible, 
and  that  in  fundamentals  the  two  communions  agreed.  In  1628, 
under  the  pseudonym  of  Rupertus,  Mildenius  called  attention  to  the 


CHURCH    UNION    MOVEMENTS.  297 

losses  which  Protestantism  was  sustaining  on  account  of  theological 
strifes.  This  writer  was  probably  the  first  to  employ  the  expres- 
sion: "In  essentials,  unity;  in  non-essentials,  liberty;  in  both, 
charity."  But  it  was  of  no  avail.  The  Lutherans  refused  these 
offers  of  peace. 

The  colloquy  at  Leipzig,  in  1631,  in  which  Saxon,  Brandenburg, 
and  Hessian  theologians  discussed  the  question  as  to  how  far  the 
tw.0  communions  agreed,  accomplished  nothing.  And  the  efforts  of 
the  Scotchman,  John  Durie  (Durjeus),  who  strove  to  the  end  of  his 
life  for  union,  were  also  fruitless,  except  that  he  aroused  the  co- 
operation of  George  Calixtus,  professor  at  the  University  of  Helm- 
stadt,  1614-1656. 

Durie  first  meets  us  at  Elbing,  Prussia,  where  he  was  pastor  of 
an  English  factory.  There  he  became  acquainted  with  Godeman, 
a  privy  counsellor  of  Gustavus  Adolphus.  Godeman  suggested  to 
Durie  that  whoever  should  bring  about  a  reconciliation  between  the 
great  parties  into  which  Christendom  was  divided  would  be  the 
greatest  peacemaker.  This  remark  was  the  turning  point  of  his 
life.  In  1628  he  addressed  a  letter  to  the  Swedish  king,  "for  the 
obtaining  of  aid  and  assistance  in  this  seasonable  time,  to  seek  for 
and  re-establish  an  ecclesiastical  peace  among  the  evangelical 
churches."  The  king  gave  his  sanction,  and  gave  him  letters  recom- 
mending him  to  all  Protestant  princes.  Henceforth  he  devoted  his 
life  to  this  work.  He  went  to  and  fro  between  England  and  the 
Continent,  attending  assemblies,  receiving  opinions,  exhorting  to 
union,  trying  to  bring  about  reconciliation  of  differences,  and  look- 
ing for  a  common  platform  on  which  all  could  stand.  Some  Eng- 
lish bishops — even  Laud,  then  Bishop  of  London — looked  with  great 
favor  on  his  work.  Bishops  Davenant,  Morton,  and  Hall  gave  him 
their  views  on  Christian  union,  which  were  published  in  1634.  Bish- 
op Davenant's  statement  is  one  of  the  most  valuable  contributions 
to  Christian  union  ever  published.  It  contains  this  noble  sentence : 
"True  and  genuine  charity  is  no  less  necessary  to  salvation  for  all 
churches  and  members  of  Christian  churches  than  the  true  and 
entire  profession  of  sound  and  saving  faith."  Many  of  the 
most  eminent  divines  in  England  gave  a  hearty  God-speed  to 
Durie.  It  is  interesting  to  notice  so  early  as  this  a  sincere  long- 
ing for  Christian  union  on  the  part  of  many  of  the  leading  spirits 
both  in  the  English  Church  and  on  the  Continent.  A  meet- 
ing of  the  Protestant  states  at  Frankfort,  in  1634,  passed  a  reso- 


298  CHRISTENDOM. 

lution  indorsing  Durie:  "They  did  judge  his  work  most  lauda- 
ble, most  acceptable  to  God,  and  most  necessary  and  useful  to  the 
church."  In  1640  he  presented  a  petition  to  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, urging  "that  the  blessed  and  long-sought-for  union  of  Prot- 
estant churches  might  be  recommended  unto  the  publick  prayers  of 
the  church,  and  that  his  majesty,  with  your  honours  advice  and 
counsell,  might  be  moved  to  call  a  general  Synod  of  Protestants  in 
due  time  for  the  better  settling  of  weighty  matters  in  the  church, 
which  now  trouble  not  only  the  conscience  of  most  men,  but  dis- 
turb the  tranquility  of  publick  states,  and  divide  the  churches  from 
one  another,  to  the  great  hindrance  of  Christianity  and  the  dis- 
honour of  religion."  And  so  he  labored  on  through  his  long  and 
restless  life,  having  only  one  object — the  pacification  of  the  churches, 
and  their  restoration  to  ancient  unity.  He  was  charged  by  William 
Prynne  with  being  "the  time-serving  Proteus  and  ambidexter  di- 
vine" ;  but  defended  himself  as  "the  unchanged,  constant  and  single- 
hearted  peacemaker."     His  principles  were: 

"1.  A  full  body  of  practical  divinity,  which  instead  of  the  ordi- 
nary philosophical  jangling  school  divinity,  might  be  proposed  to 
all  those  that  seeke  the  truth,  which  is  after  godlinesse. 

"2.  To  abolish  the  names  of  parties,  as  precbyterial,  prelatical, 
congregational,  etc.,  and  to  be  called  Reformed  Christians  of  Eng- 
land, Scotland,  France,  Germany,  etc. 

"3.  To  discountenance  controversial  writings  by  private  persons. 

"4.  It  is  the  mind  of  Christ  that  His  servants,  in  all  matters 
merely  circumstantiall  by  Him  not  determined,  should  be  left  free 
to  follow  their  own  light,  as  it  may  be  offered,  or  arise  unto  them, 
from  the  general  rules  of  edification,  and  not  constrained  by  an 
implicit  faith  to  follow  the  dictates  of  other  men." 

This  great  apostle  of  Christian  union  died  in  1680,  without  see- 
ing the  fruits  of  his  labors.  The  times  were  too  turbulent  and  the 
age  was  not  ripe  for  his  pacific  ideas.  Many  of  the  best  spirits  of  his 
time  gave  him  encouragement,  and  his  numerous  books  and  his  tire- 
less labors  form  one  of  the  noblest  legacies  which  church  history 
has  boqueathed  us  from  the  seventeenth  century.  His  studies  in 
church  history  had  widened  his  intellectual  horizon  until  he  was 
ready  to  include  Romanists,  Reformed  and  Lutherans  in  one  great 
Christian  community.  But  his  irenic  spirit  suggested  a  syncretism 
which  the  dogmatism  of  the  period  would  not  tolerate.  He  was  no 
more  successful  in  bringing  about  a  union  than  others  had  been. 


CHURCH    UNION    MOVEMENTS.  299 

The  great  apostle  of  Christian  union  was  George  Calixtus,  At 
the  University  of  Helmstadt,  where  he  was  professor,  1614-1656,  he 
became  imbued  with  the  Melanchthonian  theology,  and  by  his  wide 
travels  in  England,  Holland,  Italy,  and  France,  he  formed  a  larger 
acquaintance  with  other  churches  than  was  common  with  either  the 
Lutherans  or  Eeformed  of  his  day.  This  brought  him  to  a  breadth 
of  view  far  in  advance  of  his  time.  He  was  an  earnest  Lutheran, 
always  maintaining  that  the  Lutheran  Church  was  the  purest  of 
all.  But  he  saw  the  transcendent  importance  of  those  great  doc- 
trines on  which  all  Protestants  were  agreed,  and  he  laid  down  as  a 
basis  of  Christian  union  the  New  Testament,  as  interpreted  by  the 
church  of  the  first  five  centuries.  He  contended  that  the  points  on 
which  the  churches  difi'ered  were  unimportant  by  the  side  of  the 
fundamental  points  of  Christian  theology,  which  they  had  inherited 
in  common  from  the  purest  ages  of  the  faith.  The  churches  should 
work  together  in  peace  and  harmony,  paving  the  way  for  a  possible 
union.  Calixtus  did  not  at  first  advocate  a  formal  union.  A  con- 
ference for  Christian  union  was  appointed  at  Thorn  in  1645,  but 
nothing  came  of  it  except  as  a  wise  and  pacific  example.  The  strict 
Lutherans  opposed  him  with  intense  bitterness.  He  was  called  by 
some  a  Crypto-Calvinist,  by  others  a  secret  Papist.  It  is  pathetic 
to  read  how  the  well-meant  efforts  of  the  Helmstadt  peacemaker  were 
frustrated  and  denounced  by  the  vehement  controversialists  of  that 
age.  Walch  called  him  (Calixtus)  Cal(vino  m)ixtus,  and  identi- 
fied him  with  the  number  of  the  beast  in  the  Apocalypse.  It  was 
a  militant  age,  and  the  peacemaker's  role  was  not  popular. 

Hugo  Grotius,  a  contemporary  of  Calixtus,  was  also  enamored 
of  the  idea  of  a  united  Christendom,  He  differed  from  Calixtus  in 
this:  that  while  Calixtus  was  a  staunch  Protestant,  and  made  his 
concessions  not  toward  Eome,  but  toward  Geneva,  and  contented 
himself  with  trying  to  bring  the  Reformed  and  the  Lirtherans  to  a 
common  understanding,  Grotius  turned  rather  toward  Rome,  and 
advocated  a  restored  and  purified  Catholicism,  as  a  common  solvent 
of  all  sects,  and  a  large  fold  for  the  peaceable  meeting-place  of  all 
Christians.  This  strange  reversion  on  Grotius's  part  to  the  Roman 
Church  as  the  hope  of  Christendom  may  be  explained  from  two 
facts:  (1)  Grotius  was  an  Arminian.  He  was  delighted  to  find, 
as  he  thought,  that  the  stern  doctrines  of  Calvin  were  absent  from 
the  ancient  fathers,  that  Jerome  and  Chrysostom  and  the  Catholic 
fathers  knew  nothing  of  these  tenets.     This  led  him  to  a  passionate 


300  CHRISTENDOM. 

rebound  in  favor  of  antiquity.  (3)  The  iron  of  the  Protestant 
intolerance  had  entered  into  his  own  soul.  After  his  escape  from 
prison  he  had  taken  refuge  in  France,  where  he  was  received  with 
open  arms.  The  cordial  attitude  of  the  Catholic  ecclesiastics  soft- 
ened the  rigidity  of  his  Protestantism.  By  ample  quotations  from 
his  epistles,  Hallam  has  proved  this  defection  of  Grotius.  But  it 
was  in  the  interest  of  a  large  union.  He  thought  the  Swedish,  the 
English,  and  the  Danish  churches  might  come  together,  under  a  re- 
vived and  reformed  Catholic  banner.  He  was  weary  of  dissension. 
He  wanted  peace.  But  he  wrote  rather  as  a  statesman  than  a  the- 
ologian. It  was  peace  at  the  expense  of  truth;  it  was  peace  at  the 
expense  of  the  fullest  liberty  of  private  judgment.  Grotius  did 
not  himself  go  so  far  as  to  make  the  last  sacrifice  of  his  own  con- 
science by  accepting  the  infallibility  of  the  Roman  Church.  Wheth- 
er he  would  have  done  so  had  he  lived,  it  is  useless  to  inquire.  His 
scheme  was  a  vision,  an  hallucination.  The  history  of  Roman  Cath- 
olicism for  the  last  three  hundred  years  has  proven  that. 

John  Owen,  the  greatest  of  the  Puritan  divines,  the  Nestor  of 
the  Congregationalists,  in  his  treatise  on  schism,  lays  down  a  liberal 
platform.  He  holds  that  the  true  and  essential  note  of  the  Church 
of  Christ  is  union  with  Christ,  "and  wherever  there  is  a  man,  or 
a  body  of  men,  who  are  united  to  Him  by  living  faith,  and  are  keep- 
ing his  commandments,  he  or  they  are  in  communion  with  the 
Church  of  God."  "He  belongs  to  the  Church  Catholic,"  runs  his 
noble  charter,  "who  is  united  to  Christ  by  the  spirit,  and  none 
other."  He  vindicated  boldly  the  right  of  the  Noncomformist 
churches  to  exist,  and  yet  in  an  irenical  spirit,  and  as  one  sincerely 
desiring  the  union  of  all  Christians  in  England.  Thus,  in  his  vin- 
dication of  the  Noncomformists  from  the  charge  of  schism,  an  an- 
swer to  a  sermon  by  Stillingfleet  (1680),  he  deprecates  religious 
controversy  in  the  interest  of  Protestant  union,  and  says  that  in  the 
presence  of  the  common  danger  of  the  Roman  Church  the  sharp 
words  of  Stillingfleet  are  unseasonable.  But  he  had  no  faith  in 
artificial  schemes  of  union.  He  says:  "I  should  be  very  sorry  that 
any  man  living  should  outgo  me  in  desires  that  all  who  fear  God 
throughout  the  world,  especially  in  these  nations,  were  of  one  way 
as  well  as  of  one  heart.  I  know  that  I  desire  it  sincerely.  But  I 
verily  believe  that  when  God  shall  accomplish  it,  it  will  be  the  effect 
of  love,  and  not  the  cause  of  love.  There  is  not  a  greater  vanity 
in  the  world  than  to  drive  men  into  a  particular  profession,  and 


CHUKCH    UNION    MOVEMENTS.  301 

then  suppose  that  love  will  be  the  necessary  consequence  of  it;  to 
think  that  if,  by  sharp  rebukes,  by  cutting,  bitter  expressions,  they 
can  drive  men  into  such  and  such  practices,  love  will  certainly  en- 
sue." These  are  golden  words,  as  true  now  as  in  Owen's  troublous 
day. 

Owen  had  his  own  scheme  of  comprehension.  In  his  Tract  on 
Union  among  Protestants  (1680),  he  outlines  a  plan  of  a  Larger 
Church  of  England  by  law  established,  which  would  include  all  dis- 
senters, but  exclude  all  Romanists.  As  a  doctrinal  basis  he  would 
have  the  articles  of  the  Church  of  England  as  explained  in  the  public 
authorized  writings  of  the  church  in  the  days  of  Elizabeth  and 
James,  ^'before  the  inroad  of  novel  opinions  among  us,"  to  be  sub- 
Bcribed,  however,  only  by  ministers.  All  spiritual  affairs  were  to  be 
left  with  the  churches,  and  "outward  rites  and  observances,"  which 
were  not  inconsistent  with  the  supremacy  of  Protestantism,  were 
also  to  be  left  to  the  free  determination  of  the  churches.  But  for 
such  a  large  scheme  as  this  England  was  not  then  ready.  Owen 
anticipated  the  broad  statesmanship  of  Arnold  of  Rugby. 

Richard  Baxter,  the  great  English  Protestant  schoolman,  was  an- 
other prophet  of  Christian  union.  Living  in  a  most  stormy  and 
trying  age,  when  the  spirit  of  faction  ran  high,  when  ecclesiastical 
fighting  was  the  order  of  the  day,  he  was  the  great  peacemaker. 
He  spoke  in  these  terms  of  his  disappointment  over  the  result  of 
the  Westminster  Assembly  of  Divines :  "The  Christian  world,  since 
the  days  of  the  Apostles,  has  never  seen  a  synod  of  more  excellent 
divines  than  this  and  the  Synod  of  Dort.  Yet,  highly  as  I  honor 
the  men,  I  am  not  of  their  mind  in  every  part  of  the  government 
which  they  would  have  set  up.  Some  words  in  their  catechism  I 
wish  had  been  more  clear,  and,  above  all,  I  wish  that  the  Parliament 
and  their  more  skilful  hand  had  done  more  than  was  done  to  heal 
our  breaches,  and  had  hit  upon  the  right  way,  either  to  unite  with 
the  Episcopalians  and  Independents,  or  at  least  had  pitched  on 
terms  that  are  fit  for  universal  concord,  and  left  all  to  come  in  upon 
those  terms  that  would."  Baxter's  chief  objection  to  the  Westmins- 
ter Assembly  was  (1)  against  their  making  presbyterial  orders  a 
matter  of  divine  right.  This,  he  saw,  would  form  another  separat- 
ing barrier.  Baxter  was  a  Presbyterian,  but  would  be  now  classed 
as  a  Low-Church  Episcopalian.  That  is,  he  believed  Episcopacy 
to  be  a  convenient  and  very  ancient  form  of  polity,  though  without 
Scriptural  authority.     "As  to  fixed  bishops  of  particular  churches. 


802  CHRISTENDOM. 

that  were  superior  in  degree  to  presbyters,  though  I  have  nothing 
at  all  in  Scripture  for  them,  yet  I  saw  that  the  reception  of  them 
was  so  very  early  and  so  very  general,  I  thought  it  most  improbable 
that  it  was  contrary  to  the  mind  of  the  Apostles."  Baxter  would 
have  had  a  modified  presbyterial  episcopate  as  a  centre  of  union  for 
all  parties,  and  would  have  thrown  overboard  all  "divine  right" 
theories  of  the  ministry  as  divisive  and  false.  But  more  important 
still  was  his  objection  (2)  to  their  doctrine  of  coercion.  He  saw 
that  this  would  only  accentuate  church  divisions  and  embitter  all 
parties.  He  says :  "I  disliked  the  course  of  some  of  the  more  rigid 
of  them,  grasping  at  a  kind  of  secular  power.  They  reproach  the 
ministerial  power,  as  if  it  were  not  worth  a  straw,  unless  the  magis- 
trate's sword  enforce  it.  What,  then,  did  the  primitive  church  for 
three  hundred  years?  Till  magistrates  keep  the  sword  themselves, 
and  learn  to  deny  it  to  every  angry  clergyman  who  would  do  his 
own  work  by  it,  and  leave  them  to  their  own  weapons,  the  Word  and 
spiritual  keys,  and  aleant  quantum  valere  possunt,  the  church  will 
never  have  unity  and  peace.  I  disliked  also  some  of  them  that  were 
not  tender  enough  to  dissenting  brethren,  but  too  much  against  lib- 
erty, as  others  were  too  much  for  it,  and  thought  by  votes  and  num- 
bers to  do  that  which  love  and  reason  would  have  done."  This  is 
as  noble  a  testimony  for  toleration  as  it  is  for  Christian  union. 

ENGLISH  PRESBYTERIANS  AND  CONGREGATIONALISTS. 

There  was  first  the  effort  to  bring  together  the  Presbyterian  or 
moderate  party  in  the  Church  of  England,  and  the  Congregation- 
alists.  Baxter  was  one  of  a  noble  band  who  saw  that  underneath  all 
differences  there  was  a  real  unity. 

"There  is  no  such  difference,"  said  Thomas  Hill,  a  Presbyterian, 
in  1645,  "for  aught  I  know,  between  the  sober  Independents  and 
moderate  Presbyterians,  but  if  things  were  wisely  managed,  both 
might  be  reconciled ;  and  by  the  happy  union  of  them  both  together, 
the  Church  of  England  might  be  a  glorious  church,  and  that  with- 
out persecuting,  banishing,  or  any  such  thing,  which  some  mouths 
are  too  full  of.  I  confess  it  is  most  desirable  that  confusion  (that 
many  people  fear  by  Independency)  might  be  prevented;  and  it  is 
likewise  desirable  that  the  severity  that  some  others  fear  by  the 
rigor  of  presbytery  might  be  hindered ;  therefore  let  us  labor  for  a 
prudent  love,  and  study  to  advance  one  happy  accommodation." 


CHURCH    UNION    MOVEMENTS.  303 

On  the  side  of  the  Congregationalists  Jeremiah  Burroughs  ad- 
vanced these  magnanimous  sentiments.  It  is  notable  to  see  that 
the  finest  and  highest  of  recent  words  for  the  universal  peace  of 
Protestant  Christendom  are  but  the  echo  of  these  proposals  of  the 
seventeenth  century. 

**Why  should  we  not  think  it  possible,"  says  Burroughs,  "for  us 
to  go  along,  close  together  in  love  and  peace,  though  in  some  things 
our  judgments  be  apparently  different  one  from  another?  I  will 
give  you  who  are  scholars  a  sentence  to  write  upon  your  study  doors, 
as  needful  an  one  in  these  times  as  any ;  it  is  this :  Opinionum  va- 
rielas,  et  opiniantium  unitas  non  sunt  affvffrara^  Variety  of  opin- 
ions and  unity  of  those  that  hold  them  may  stand  together.  There 
hath  been  much  ado  to  get  us  to  agree ;  we  laboured  to  get  our  opin- 
ions into  onC;  but  they  will  not  come  together.  It  may  be  in  our 
endeavors  for  agreement  we  have  begun  at  the  wrong  end.  Let  us 
try  what  we  can  do  at  the  other  end ;  it  may  be  we  shall  have  better 
success  there.  Let  us  labour  to  joine  our  hearts,  to  engage  our  af- 
fections one  to  another;  if  we  cannot  be  of  one  mind  that  we  may 
agree,  let  us  agree  that  we  may  be  of  one  mind." 

In  answer  to  this  flag  of  truce  the  Presbyterian  ministers  of  the 
Provincial  Assembly  of  London,  in  1653,  sent  forth  the  following: 

"A  fifth  sort  are  our  reverend  brethren  of  the  New  and  Old  Eng- 
land of  the  Congregational  way,  who  hold  our  churches  to  be  true 
churches,  and  our  ministers  true  ministers,  though  they  differ  from 
us  in  some  lesser  things.  We  have  been  necessitated  to  fall  upon 
some  things,  wherein  they  and  we  disagree,  and  have  represented 
the  reasons  of  our  dissent.  But  we  here  profess  that  this  disagree- 
ment shall  not  hinder  us  from  any  Christian  accord  with  them  in 
affection;  that  we  can  willingly  write  upon  our  study  doors  that 
motto  which  Mr.  Jer.  Burroughs  (who  a  little  before  his  death  did 
ambitiously  endeavor  after  union  amongst  brethren,  as  some  of  us 
can  testify)  persuades  all  scholars  unto:  Opinionum  varietas,  et 
opiniantium  unitas  non  suntdffvfftara.  And  that  we  shall  be  will- 
ing to  entertain  any  sincere  motion  (as  we  have  also  formerly  de- 
clared in  our  printed  vindication),  that  shall  farther  a  happy  ac- 
commodation between  us. 

"The  last  sort  are  the  moderate,  godly  Episcopal  men,  that  hold 
ordination  by  presbyters  to  be  lawful  and  valid ;  that  a  bishop  and 
a  presbyter  are  one  and  the  same  order  of  ministry,  that  are  ortho- 
dox in  doctrinal  truth,  and  yet  hold  that  the  government  of  the 


304  CHEISTENDOM. 

church  by  a  perpetual  moderator  is  most  agreeable  tO'  Scripture  pat- 
tern. Though  herein  we  differ  from  them,  yet  we  are  farre  from 
thinking  that  this  difference  should  hinder  a  happy  union  between 
them  and  us.  Nay,  we  crave  Icaye  to  profess  to  the  world  that  it 
will  never  (as  we  humbly  conceive)  be  well  with  England  till  there 
be  an  union  endeavoured  and  effected  between  all  those  that  are  or- 
thodox in  doctrine  though  differing  among  themselves  in  some  cir- 
cumstances about  church  government." 

Unhappily,  the  England  of  the  seventeenth  century  was  too  stormy 
for  the  fruition  of  such  lofty  desires.  But  on  this  continent  twenty- 
four  years  before  the  Presbyterian  Assembly  of  London  issued  that 
remarkable  paper,  there  had  been  realized  exactly  the  union  for 
which  these  men  were  praying.  At  Salem,  in  1639,  the  Plymouth 
Congregational  Church  and  the  Salem  Presbyterial-Episcopal 
Church  were  united  in  one  blessed  fellowship — a  happy  omen  for 
this  continent. 

Robert  Hall  (d.  1831)  was  an  earnest  advocate  of  Christian. union. 
His  words  are  fully  equal  to  those  of  the  latest  zealot  in  this  matter. 
He  says : 

"Nothing  more  abhorrent  to  the  principles  and  maxims  of  the 
sacred  oracles  can  be  conceived  than  the  idea,  of  a  plurality  of  true 
churches,  neither  in*  actual  communion  with  each  other,  nor  in  the 
capacity  for  such  communion.  Though  this  rending  of  the  seam- 
less coat  of  our  Saviour,  this  schism  in  the  members  of  His  mystical 
body,  is  by  far  the  greatest  calamity  which  has  befallen  the  Chris- 
tian interest,  and  one  of  the  most  fatal  effects  of  the  great  apostacy 
foretold  by  the  sacred  penman,  we  have  been  so  long  familiarized  to 
it  as  to  be  scarcely  sensible  of  its  enormity;  nor  does  it  excite  sus- 
picion or  concern  in  any  degree  proportioned  to  what  would  be  felt 
by  one  who  had  contemplated  the  church  in  the  first  ages.  Chris- 
tian societies  regarding  each  other  with  the  jealousies  of  rival  em- 
pires, each  trying  to  raise  itself  on  the  ruin  of  all  the  others,  mak- 
ing extravagant  boasts  of  superior  purity,  generally  in  exact  pro- 
portion to  their  departures  from  it,  and  scarcely  deigning  to  ac- 
knowledge the  possibility  of  obtaining  salvation  out  of  their  pale, 
13  the  odious  and  disgusting  spectacle  which  modern  Christendom 
presents.  The  evils  which  result  from  this  state  of  division  are 
incalculable.  Tt  supplies  infidels  with  their  most  plausible  topics  of 
invective;  it  hardens  the  conscience  of  the  irreligious;  it  weakens 
^iLe  hands  of  the  good,  impedes  the  efficacy  of  prayer,  and  is  prob- 


CHURCH    UNION.  MOVEMENTS.  305 

ably  the  principal  obstruction  to  that  ample  effusion  of  the  Spirit 
which  is  essential  to  the  renovation,  of  the  world." 

This  passage  reveals  Hall  far  in  advance  of  the  general  sentiment 
of  his  day. 

THE  UNION   OF   1817. 

The  early  years  of  the  nineteenth  century  were  distinguished  by 
an  event  of  great  importance.  It  was  the  formal  union  throughout 
most  of  Germany  between  the  Reformed  and  the  Lutheran  parties, 
which  had  so  long  been  in  conflict.  The  union  was  first  effected 
in  Nassau,  in  August,  1817.  On  September  37th  of  the  same  year 
Frederick  William  II  of  Prussia  issued  an  appeal  to  the  clergy  to 
strive  for  a  union  as  one  of  the  best  means  for  a  proper  celebration 
of  the  three  hundredth  anniversary  of  the  Reformation,  October  31, 
1817.  The  influence  of  this  proclamation  was  great,  but  it  could 
have  effected  nothing  had  not  the  progress  of  events  been  most  help- 
ful. Both  the  people  and  the  theologians  were  convinced  that  the 
points  of  division,  even  with  reference  to  the  ritual  observance  of 
the  Lord's  Supper,  were  not  clearly  set  forth  in  Scripture,  and  were 
therefore  not  essential.  The  king  saw  and  embraced  his  opportun- 
ity, and  accomplished  what  the  Hohenzollerns  had  long  been  seek- 
ing. Many  places  celebrated  the  union  by  the  solemn  administra- 
tion of  the  Lord's  Supper,  in  which  the  two  parties  united.  The 
terms  "Lutheran"  and  "Reformed"  were  abolished,  and  the  united 
church  was  called  the  "Evangelical."  The  union  did  not  compel 
the  relaxation  of  opinions  previously  held,  but  only  provided  for 
mutual  toleration,  and  the  admission  that  in  each  communion  the 
pure  word  of  God  was  preached  and  the  sacraments  duly  adminis- 
tered. Nevertheless,  the  introduction  of  a  new  liturgy,  in  1831, 
caused  difficulty.  To  the  Reformed  it  appeared  too  much  like  the 
Roman  Catholic  mass;  to  the  Lutherans  it  was  too  plain  that  the 
underlying  presuppositions  were  those  of  Calvinism.  The  desire  for 
union  prevailed,  however,  with  the  vast  majority. 

The  first  real  difficulty  occurred  in  Breslau,  where  Scheibel  was 
professor  and  pastor.  He  refused  to  employ  the  new  liturgy,  claim- 
ing that  it  must  lead  to  a  fatal  indifferentism  to  tolerate,  for  the 
sake  of  peace,  errors  of  faith  in  the  church.  His  persistence  was  so 
great  that  in  1830  he  was  deposed  by  the  magistracy,  and  with  him 
went  about  two  thousand  of  his  flock  and  a  number  of  scholars. 
The  beginning  had  been  made,  and  although  Frederick  William  III 


306  CHRISTENDOM. 

would  not  tolerate  these  so-called  Old  Lutherans,  but  forbade  their 

assemblies,  and  punished  their  clergy  for  administerirvg  the  sacra- 
ments, congregations  arose  in  many  parts  of  Germany.  Vast  num- 
bers of  them  emigrated  to  America,  while  others  remained  at  home 
and  endured  the  persecution  so  unjustly  inflicted  upon  them,  and 
have  perpetuated  their  branch  of  the  church  to  the  present  day. 

THE  FRIENDLY  RELATIONS  BETWEEN  PROTESTANTISM  AND  THE 
GREEK  CHURCH. 

When  Western  Christendom  found  itself  suddenly  cleft  into  two 
warring  halves,  it  was  natural  that  the  Eeformers,  who  had  bought 
their  freedom  by  a  breach  with  the  immemorial  traditions  of  doc- 
trine, ritual  and  polity,  should  consider  the  possibility  of  making 
these  losses  good  by  alliance  with  the  Eastern  Church.  The  ortho- 
doxy of  this  was  so  indisputable  that  Orthodox  had  become  a  part 
of  its  very  title;  its  succession  was  more  certainly  authentic  than 
that  of  Eome ;  and  every  one  of  the  undisputed  councils  of  the  whole 
church  had  been  held  in  its  territory.  To  the  hierarchical  arro- 
gance of  Eome  it  opposed  a  calm  assurance  of  doctrinal  and  ritual 
superiority.  Could  the  Eeforming  North  and  the  Orthodox  East 
join  their  forces,  Eome  would  sink  into  relative  insignificance.  The 
scheme,  however,  was  an  impossibility  from  the  beginning.  How- 
ever much  the  Eastern  patriarchs  and  their  dependent  bishops  might 
resent  the  pretensions  of  Eome,  they  recognized  themselves  as  be- 
longing to  the  same  great  system.  The  continental  Eeformers,  on 
the  other  hand,  had  broken  altogether,  not  with  Romanism  merely, 
but  with  the  Catholic  Church.  With  the  martyrs  and  the  early 
fathers  they  had  the  fellowship  of  a  common  Christianity,  but  not 
of  a  common  Catholicism. 

The  learned  Melanchthon  and  his  scholarly  fellows  could  not  fail 
to  see  that  their  hopes  were  very  slender  of  negotiating  a  union  with 
the  East.  Indeed,  the  attempt  was  only  an  incidental  matter,  and 
the  first  occasion  was  given  by  the  Greeks.  In  1559,  the  Patriarch 
Joasaph  II  sent  the  deacon  Demetrius  Mysius  to  Wittenberg  to  in- 
form himself  as  to  the  new  doctrine.  Mysius  stayed  at  Wittenberg 
half  a  year,  and  on  his  return  carried  with  him  a  Greek  copy  of  the 
Augsburg  Confession.  This  is  exceedingly  conciliatory  toward  Cath- 
olicism. Yet  the  patriarch  did  not.  even  condescend  to  answer  the 
reassuring  letter  which  Melanchthon  had  committed  to  Mysius. 


CHUECH    UXIOX    MOVEALEXTS.  307 

fourteen  years  later  Martin  Crusius  and  Jacob  Andrea,  of  Tubin- 
gen, after  writing  three  times  to  the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople, 
obtained  from  him  a  disdainful  answer,  in  which  he  simply  sum- 
moned them  to  profess  steadfastly  the  true  faith  of  the  Greeks,  and 
not  to  deviate  from  the  Bible,  the  seven  synods,  and  the  holy  fathers, 
maintaining  also  traditions,  written  and  unwritten.  The  two  di- 
vines replied  that  they  ac-c-epted  the  true  faith  as  propounded  by  the 
seven  synods,  and  only  differed  from  the  Greeks  in  some  local  usages 
of  no  great  acc-ount.  After  about  two  years'  delay  Jeremiah  re- 
turned a  formal  reply,  rejecting  everything  in  which  the  Protestants 
differed  from  the  Greek  orthodoxy,  and  accepting  only  those  points 
in  which  the  Greeks,  too,  differed  from  Eome.  He  closed  with  a 
solemn  adjuration  to  the  Protestants,  as  they  valued  their  eternal 
salvation,  to  enter  into  the  bosom  of  the  true  Oriental  Church.  The 
Lutheran  divines  now  at  last  set  forth  more  distinctly  their 
points  of  divergenc-e  from  the  East.  After  long  delays  and  re- 
peated attempts  of  the  Lutherans  to  conciliate  the  patriarch,  Jere- 
miah at  last  returned  a  decisive  and  angry  reply,  showing  the  im- 
possibility of  reconciling  Protestantism  with  Oriental  Orthodoxy, 
and  reproaching  the  Eeformers  with  their  arrogance  in  thinking 
themselves  wiser  than  the  fathers,  whose  faith  had  been  attested  by 
miracles;  wiser  than  the  churches  of  Old  and  Xew  Rome  together, 
while  they  divided  among  themselves  into  innumerable  parties.  He 
entreats,  in  conclusion,  that  they  would  importune  him  no  longer 
with  their  theological  c-orrespondenee.  To  a  new  dissertation  Jere- 
miah returned  no  answer.  Thus  ended  the  second  attempt  to  es- 
tablish a  good  understanding  between  Lutheran  ism  and  the  East. 

Protestantism,  however,  was  destined  to  have  a  temporary  tri- 
umph in  the  East,  and  that  in  the  predominant  see,  at  Constanti- 
nople itself.  Moreover,  this  victory  was  reserved,  not  for  Luther- 
anism,  whose  attitude  toward  Catholicism,  in  externals  at  least,  was 
comparatively  conciliatory,  but  for  the  absolutely  irreconcilable  sys- 
tem of  Calvin.  The  agent  of  this  temporary  tritmiph  was  the 
Patriarch  Cyril  Lucar.  Luear  was  bom  in  1572,  at  Candia,  the 
capital  of  the  island  of  Crete.  He  sprang  of  a  Greek  family  of 
old  nobility,  akin  even  to  the  imperial  house  of  Paleologus. 

Cyril's  long  sojourn  in  Italy,  while  intensifying  his  hostility  to 
Eome,  had  broken  his  prejudice  against  ihe  West,  and  thereby  pre- 
disposed him  to  view  Proteslantism  favorably.  And  since,  after 
his  return  East,  in  1595,  his  patron,  Meletius,  who  was  just  then 


308  CHEISTENDOM. 

Administrator  of  Constantinople,  sent  him  into  Poland,  to  have  a 
part  in  the  repeated  but  always  futile  negotiations  for  reunion  be- 
tween Roman  Catholics,  Greeks  and  Protestants,  he  became  more 
and  more  favorable  to  the  last  as  allies  against  the  first.  He  was 
yet  only  a  boy  of  twenty-three,  and,  discovering  in  tne  course  of  the 
complicated  disputations  that  his  knowledge  of  theology  was  very 
insufficient,  he  resolved  to  visit  Wittenberg  and  Geneva.  He  seems 
to  have  stayed  there,  principally  "at  Geneva,  for  nearly  three  years. 
Geneva  was  then  much  more  eminent  than  Wittenberg,  and  thus 
Calvinism  made  the  deeper  impression  on  his  mind.  In  1601  Mele- 
tius  died.  His  cousin  Cyril,  not  'yet  thirty,  was  chosen  his  suc- 
cessor. 

Cyril,  like  his  predecessor,  does, not  appear  to  have  been  particu- 
larly devoted  to  the  little  flock  of  the  Orthodox  in  Egypt.  Constan- 
tinople drew  them  both  to  herself  with  irresistible  attraction.  Once, 
on  allegations  of  intriguing  against  the  chief  patriarch,  Cyril  was 
banished  to  Mount  Athos,  and  when  released  was  forbidden  even  to 
say  mass  in  Constantinople.  He  then  retired  to  Wallachia,  but 
finally  returned  to  Egypt,  where  he  issued  a  flaming  admonition 
against  the  Roman  emissaries.  He  now  entered  into  a  most  inti- 
mate correspondence  with  the  Puritan  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
George  Abbot.  At  Abbot's  suggestion  he  sent  to  him  as  a  student, 
to  be  supported  by  the  king,  a  young  Alexandrian  priest  of  eminent 
descent,  Metrophanes  Kritopulos. 

Cyril  Lucar  became  Patriarch  of  Constantinople  in  1621,  and, 
with  several  mutations  of  banishment  and  recall,  he  maintained 
himself  in  this  second  bishopric  of  the  Christian  world  until  his 
violent  death  in  1638.  His  constant  correspondence  with  the  Re- 
formed, while  still  at  Cairo,  shows  a  rapidly  developing  inclination 
to  Calvinism,  until  at  last  he  became  in  theory  a  Calvinistic  Prot- 
estant out  and  out.  This  appears  fully  in  his  confession  of  faith, 
first  published  in  Holland,  in  1629.  In  1633  he  himself  published 
it  at  home.  He  obtained  for  it  the  sanction  of  a  small  synod  of  his 
personal  adherents,  but  never  ventured  to  publish  it,  by  an  encycli- 
cal, throughout  his  patriarchate,  or  even  in  his  immediate  diocese. 

The  confession  is  completely  Protestant  and  Calvinistic.  It  sub- 
ordinates tradition  and  the  church  emphatically  to  the  Scripture, 
declaring  that  the  church  can  always  err  in  doctrine,  and  must  be 
set  right  by  the  Scripture.  It  teaches  election  and  reprobation  in 
Dominican   and  Calvinistic  severity,  against  the  more  Arminian 


CHURCH    UNION    MOVEMENTS.  309 

bent  which  has  always  distinguished  the  Greek  Church.  It  de- 
scribes Christ  not  only  as  the  supreme  but  as  the  sole  mediator.  It 
explicitly  teaches  justification  by  faith  alone.  It  virtually  denies 
the  hierarchical,  though  not  the  administrative,  power  of  the  bishops. 
It  maintains  that  all  the  works  of  the  unregenerated  are  sinful.  It 
teaches  two,  not  seven,  sacraments,  and  implies  that  their  efficacy 
is  ex  opere  operantis.  It  explicitly  denies  transubstantiation,  and 
allows  only  the  spiritual  presence  of  Christ  in  the  eucharist.  It 
denies  purgatory  explicitly. 

This  creed,  so  utterly  contradictory  at  so  many  points  to  Cathol- 
icism, Eastern  and  Western  alike,  passed  for  five  years  without  ac- 
tion by  the  bishops  of  the  great  Constantinopolitan  patriarchate,  or 
by  the  other  Eastern  patriarchs.  An  ultimate  explosion,  however, 
was  inevitable.  The  Jesuits  were  indefatigable  in  calling  attention 
to  the  new  danger.  The  Pope  himself  wrote,  adjuring  his  Eastern 
brethren,  if  they  must  be  scliismatics,  at  least  not  to  disgrace  them- 
selves by  turning  heretics.  For  a  while  the  influence  of  England 
and  Holland  kept  Cyril  in  his  place,  but  at  last  the  much  stronger 
influence  of  France,  the  special  ally  of  the  Turk,  overcame  theirs. 
The  metropolitan  clergy,  in  the  end,  however  unwillingly,  came  to 
perceive  that  their  patriarch  was  a  thorough  Calvinist,  and  was  bent 
on  giving  over  the  whole  East  to  Calvinistic  Protestantism.  Fin- 
ally, by  secret  order  of  the  Sublime  Porte,  Cyril,  in  the  evening  of 
June  36,  1638,  having  been  already  imprisoned,  was  put  on  board 
a  boat,  which  was  rowed  out  into  the  Bosphorus,  where  the  execu- 
tioners, allowing  him  a  little  time  for  prayer,  strangled  him  and 
threw  his  body  overboard.  The  corpse  was  cast  on  shore  and  rev- 
erently buried  by  friends.  Thus  perished  the  first  and  only  Prot- 
estant Patriarch  of  Constantinople. 

Since  Canterbury  has  risen  to  be  a  world-wide  patriarchate,  hav- 
ing some  two  hundred  and  fifty  bishops  subordinate,  or  at  least  loyal, 
to  it,  Constantinople  regards  it  less  decidedly  than  once  as  a  mere 
rebel  against  Eome.  Anglicanism,  too,  now  that  it  advances  its 
Catholic  elements  of  doctrine  and  worship  more  to  the  front,  and 
remands  its  Protestant  polemics  more  to  the  rear,  is  less  offensive  to 
the  East  than  when  it  was  simply  a  Calvinistic  Episcopal  Church. 
Whether  the  Orientals  and  the  Anglicans  will  ever  form  a  close  con- 
junction as  against  Rome  is  wholly  uncertain,  but  it  is  at  least  not 
an  impossibility. 

A  beautiful  irenicon  was  that  of  an  American  lawyer  of  the  Ee- 


310  CHKISTENDOM. 

formed  Church,  Abraham  Van  Dyke,  Esq.,  who  in  1836  published  a 
book  entitled,  "Christian  Union;  or  an  Argument  for  the  Aboli- 
tion of  Sects."  It  was  dedicated  to  the  Eev.  David  Abeel,  a  mis- 
sionary of  the  Dutch  Reformed  Church  in  the  East.  It  is  an  earn- 
est and  pious  plea  for  Christian  union.  Van  Dyke  had  also  the 
faith  to  believe  that  such  a  union  would  in  fact  soon  be  realized. 
This  was  a  more  daring  faith  sixty  years  ago  than  now.  He  con- 
siders every  objection,  and  modern  discussion  has  added  but  little 
to  his  systematic  and  large-minded  presentation. 

The  irenic  proposals  of  Van  Dyke  met  with  serious  opposition 
from  two  influential  sources.  One  was  the  opposition  of  the  Prot- 
estant Episcopal  Bishop  of  Kentucky,  Dr.  B.  B.  Smith.  He  wel- 
comed the  book  as  an  evidence  of  dissatisfaction  with  the  present 
position  of  Protestantism,  but  he  had  no  faith  in  the  peaceable  and 
catholic  plans  of  Van  Dyke.  These  plans  he  ridiculed  by  calling 
them  simply  an  "agreement  that  Christians  shall  not  bite  and  de- 
vour one  another."  On  the  contrary,  said  Bishop  Smith,  it  is  fu- 
tile to  talk  about  Christian  union  until  all  Christians  are  agreed 
in  one  outward  form  of  church  organization.  "What  sort  of  union," 
says  Bishop  Smith,  "among  the  followers  of  Christ  should  be  pro- 
posed ?  Shall  they  be  called  upon  to  unite  in  some  way  or  another 
as  they  now  stand  divided ;  or  are  they  bound  to  agree  in  one  outward 
form  of  Christianity?  For  our  part  we  most  explicitly  avow  our 
conviction  that  every  attempt  to  put  a  stop  to  the  dissensions  and 
subdivisions  which  distract  the  church  must  forever  prove  futile, 
until  Christians  are  agreed  in  one  outward  form  of  Christianity. 
To  talk  about  union  in  feeling  and  spirit,  whilst  there  is  disunion 
in  fact,  is  about  as  wise  as  to  exhort  those  to  love  one  another  be- 
tween whom  occasion  of  deadly  feud  exists."  Bishop  Smith  him- 
self was  a  High  Churchman.  He  considered  "one  of  the  grand 
mistakes  of  the  Reformation  a  separation  from  the  church  instead 
of  reformation  in  the  church."  This  hostile  reception  of  the  Dutch 
Presbyterian  layman's  pacific  propositions  on  the  part  of  this  pre- 
late of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  was  a  distinct  intimation  on 
the  part  of  that  church  that  nothing  could  be  considered  on  this 
subject  unless  the  adoption  of  the  Episcopal  Church  constitution 
was  laid  down  as  the  first  plank  in  the  platform. 

Another  powerful  voice  lifted  against  the  too  hasty  adoption  of 
the  peace  propositions  of  Van  Dyke  was  that  of  the  "Princeton  Re- 
view."    In  an  article  published  in  1836,  the  "Review,"  then  con- 


CHUECH    UNION    MOVEMENTS.  311 

ducted  by  its  founder,  Dr.  Charles  Hodge,  expressed  hearty  sym- 
pathy with  the  aim  and  spirit  of  Van  Dyke's  book,  but  could  not 
go  so  far  as  the  enthusiastic  author,  for  these  reasons : 

1.  Truth  is  greater  than  union.  In  such  an  amalgamation  of 
Christians  some  would  have  to  lay  aside  their  convictions,  or  keep 
silent  respecting  them,  and  either  course  would  be  disloyalty  to  the 
God  of  truth.  "Every  attempt  to  reconcile  differences  among  Chris- 
tians which  involves  the  relinquishment  of  truth,  or  a  compromise 
with  important  corruption,  either  in  doctrine  or  worship;  or 
giving  countenance  to  what  is  deemed  an  injurious  departure 
from  what  Christ  has  commanded,  is  undoubtedly  criminal  and 
mischievous.^' 

2.  Such  an  amalgamation  of  the  churches,  on  the  principle  that 
their  diversities  in  doctrine  and  order,  as  long  as  they  do  not  affect 
the  fundamentals  of  religion,  are  of  little  account,  and  ought  not  to 
permit  the  most  intimate  union,  would  discourage  that  "searching 
of  the  Scriptures,"  and  that  earnest  "contending  for  the  faith" 
which  is  expressly  commanded  as  a  Christian  duty. 

3.  But  such  union,  even  if  attained  without  dishonest  sacrifice, 
would  do  no  good.  It  would  not  produce  love,  and  without  love 
it  would  be  a  curse.  The  nearer  the  Christian  denominations  come 
to  each  other,  the  more  they  would  fight.  This  writer  does  indeed 
express  the  hope  that  all  the  Reformed  churches  in  the  United  States 
holding  the  Presbyterian  system  will  be  united  in  organic  union, 
and  that  some  alive  then  (183G)  would  live  to  see  the  day,  but  he 
says  that  even  such  a  union  as  that  he  would  strenuously  oppose,  be- 
cause the  conditions  of  friendship  and  love  which  would  make  the 
union  a  blessing  did  not  then  exist. 

In  conclusion  this  able  writer  lays  down  the  following  principles : 

1.  All  who  profess  the  true  religion  in  its  essential  characteristics 
belong  to  the  church  catholic,  and  ought  to  be  so  regarded  by  all 
who  believe  that  Christ  is  one  and  His  religion  one. 

2.  Concurrence  in  some  outward  form  of  Christianity  is  not  es- 
sential to  Christian  union,  or  to  the  communion  of  saints. 

3.  Yet  everything  that  tends  to  divide  the  body  of  Christ  or  its 
members  from  each  other  is  sinful. 

4.  The  day  is  coming,  and  is  not  far  distant,  when  the  people  of 
God  will  be  so  united,  both  in  form  and  spirit,  that  they  will  feel 
that  they  are  one  body  in  Christ,  and  every  one  members  one  of 
another. 


312  CHRISTENDOM. 

5.  A  formal  coalition  of  all  sects  into  one  body  under  one  name 
would  not  necessarily  be  Christian  union. 

6.  The  spirit  of  sectarism  must  first  be  slain,  and  the  spirit  of 
charity  become  triumphant  in  every  part  of  the  church. 

7.  Attempts  to  break  down  the  barriers  which  now  divide  Chris- 
tians before  such  baptism  of  the  spirit  of  love  is  given  are  of  no  use. 

8.  Those  churches  which  stand  aloof  from  other  churches  on 
grounds  not  supported  by  the  Word  of  God,  are  guilty  of  schism. 
This  applies  to  the  Eoman  and  to  the  Episcopal  churches. 

9.  There  will  be  at  length  a  pouring  out  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  a 
measure  never  known  since  Pentecost,  which  will  prepare  the  world 
for  a  consummation  devoutly  to  be  wished — the  formal  and  real 
union  of  all  Christians. 

MORE  RECENT   UNIONS  AND  NEGOTIATIONS. 

An  irenic  movement  which  has  affected  the  ecclesiastical  life  of 
Scotland,  and  thence  of  the  world,  was  that  which  brought  together 
the  great  churches — the  United  Secession  Church  of  Scotland  and 
the  smaller  and  yet  influential  church,  the  Eelief  Church.  The 
spirit  of  the  Eelief  Church  was  eminently  Catholic.  Its  founder, 
Gillespie,  had  been  trained  by  Doddridge,  and  he,  Gillespie,  could 
say:  "I  hold  communion  Avith  all  that  visibly  hold  the  Head,  and 
with  such  only,"  a  sentiment  which  reminds  one  of  the  famous  dec- 
laration of  his  great  contemporary,  Wesley,  who  said:  "I  desire 
to  form  a  league,  offensive  and  defensive,  with  every  follower  of 
Christ."  In  1847  the  union  of  these  two  churches  was  effected 
with  great  enthusiasm.  The  United  Presbyterian  Church  of  Scot- 
land has  been  one  of  the  most  aggressive  and  spiritual  churches  of 
Scotland.  In  1876  the  congregations  of  this  church  in  England 
united  with  the  English  Presbyterian  Church,  making  the  Presby- 
terian Church  of  England.  In  1853  one  of  the  Secession  churches 
of  Scotland — that  in  which  Dr.  Thomas  McCrie  was  the  leading 
light — united  with  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland,  and  in  1876  the 
Reformed  Presbyterian  [Cameronian]  Church — or  a  large  majority 
of  it — also  joined  its  fortunes  with  the  Free  Church.  Although 
there  have  been  strong  counter-currents  driving  the  Scottish  Chris- 
tians apart,  there  have  been  also  strong  centripetal  movements  bring- 
ing them  together.  For  ten  years  negotiations  were  carried  on  by 
the  Free  Church  between  herself  and  (he  Eeformed,  the  United  and 
the  English  Presbyterian  churches  with  a  view  to  union.     But  a 


CHURCH    UNION    MOVEMENTS.  313 

smaH  minority  threatened  to  secede  from  the  Free  Church  if  the 
project  were  carried  through,  and  it  was  wisely  abandoned.  The 
General  Assembly  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  has  formally  ap- 
proached every  Presbyterian  Church  in  Scotland  with  the  expres- 
sion of  her  "hearty  willingness  and  desire  to  take  all  possible  steps, 
consistent  with  the  maintenance  of  an  establishment  of  religion, 
to  promote  the  union  of  such  churches."  Her  efforts  have  as  yet 
proved  fruitless,  but  we  must  echo  the  words  of  the  Rev.  Pearson 
McAdam  Muir,  in  his  admirable  brief  history  of  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land, that  "it  is  hard  to  believe  that  it  is  impossible  to  find  a  basis 
of  agreement  on  which,  without  abandonment  of  principle  or  com- 
promise of  honor  on  either  side,  the  now  opposing  communions  may 
take  their  stand,  and  thus  avert  a  long,  unhappy,  and  disgraceful 
strife." 

The  movement  for  the  union  of  two.  of  the  Scotch  Presbyterian 
churches,  which  began  several  years  ago,  reached  a  successful  issue, 
and  on  October  31,  1900,  the  final  legal  and  ecclesiastical  steps  were 
taken  consolidating  into  one  body  the  Free  Church  and  the  United 
Presbyterian  Church  of  Scotland.  The  name  of  the  new  organiza- 
tion is  the  United  Free  Church  of  Scotland.  Its  ministers  number 
1,786,  and  its  members  495,178.  This  union  is  very  successful  in 
the  Lowlands,  but  encounters  some  opposition  in  the  Highlands. 

In  speaking  of  Scotch  Presbyterianism  we  naturally  think  of  the 
daughter  on  this  side  of  the  water.  In  1837  the  Presbyterian 
Church  of  the  United  States  was  unfortunately  broken  into  two 
divisions — commonly  called  the  Old  School  and  the  New  School. 
But  it  was  impossible  that  churches  having  the  same  creed  and  dis- 
cipline, and  not  divided  by  any  profound  sectional  and  political 
feeling,  could  remain  forever  apart.  A  new  generation  came  that 
knew  but  little  and  cared  less  about  the  old  causes  of  strife. 
Churches  and  pastors  united  in  the  ordinary  ways  of  fraternal  in- 
tercourse. Then  the  mighty  struggle  for  the  Union  baptized  the 
northern  churches  into  a  oneness  of  feeling.  Patriotism  became  the 
handmaid  of  religion.  Why  should  not  the  church  be  one  as  the 
nation  is  one?  In  1862  the  Old  School  Assembly  proposed  a  stated 
annual  and  friendly  interchange  of  commissioners  between  the  two 
General  Assemblies.  This  was  met  by  a  hearty  response  in  the 
friendliest  spirit  by  the  New  School  Assembly.  At  a  meeting  of  the 
Old  School  General  Assembly  at  Newark,  in  1864,  a  number  of 
ministers  and  lavmen  met  together  to  consider  organic  unicm.     This 


314  CHEISTENDOM. 

non-official  l)ody  adopted  a  statement  in  which,  among  other  things^ 
they  ?aid : 

"It  is  believed  that  the  great  majority  in  each  branch  sincerely 
receive  and  adopt  the  Confession  of  Faith,  as  containing  the  system 
of  doctrine  taught  in  the  Holy  Scriptures,  and  approve  the  same 
government  and  discipline.  On  this  basis  we  may  reunite,  mutu- 
ally regarding  and  treating  the  office-bearers  and  church  courts  of 
each  branch  as  co-ordinate  elements  in  the  reconstruction.  There 
are  difficulties  in  the  way  of  repairing  the  breaches  of  Zion,  which 
must  be  met  and  overcome  by  well-considered  methods,  and  in  a 
spirit  of  forbearance  and  prudence.  Eeunion  cannot  be  accom- 
plished, nor  is  it  to  be  desired,  without  the  restoration  of  a  spirit  of 
unity  and  fraternity.  We  believe  this  spirit  exists  and  is  constantly 
increasing.  That  which  should  first  engage  the  attention  of  the 
friends  of  reunion  should  be  to  find  out  how  far  unity  of  sentiment 
and  kindness  of  feeling  prevail." 

The  same  year,  at  Dayton,  Ohio,  that  great  scholar  and  irenic 
spirit  of  whom  not  only  Union  Seminary  but  the  whole  American 
Church  has  reason  to  be  proud.  Dr.  Henry  B.  Smith,  as  retiring 
Moderator  of  the  New  School  Assembly,  preached  a  sermon  in  which 
he  presented  the  subject  of  organic  union  "with  singular  felicity  and 
power."  In  18(56  both  assemblies  met  at  St.  Louis.  There  they 
mingled  together  in  religious  worship  and  in  the  sacrament  of  the 
Lord's  Supper.  Nothing  could  withstand  the  spirit  that  made  for 
fraternity.  The  Old  School  Assembly  passed  resolutions  looking 
toward  organic  union,  and  appointed  a  committee  to  act  with  a  sim- 
ilar committee  of  the  New  School  Assembly.  It  was  a  thrilling 
moment  in  the  history  of  the  Church  of  God  when  the  Eev.  Dr. 
Phineas  D.  Gurley,  of  Washington,  and  the  Hon.  Lincoln  Clark, 
of  Detroit,  walked  into  the  New  School  Assembly  bearing  these  over- 
tures. With  equal  cordiality  and  readiness  the  New  School  Church 
met  the  advances  of  the  Old  School  brethren.  In  1867  a  plan  for 
reunion  was  submitted  by  this  committee  to  both  assemblies  for  dis- 
cussion during  another  year.  At  this  juncture  an  ominous  voice  in 
dissent  was  heard.  In  the  "Princeton  Review"  for  July,  1867,  Dr. 
Chas.  Hodge  objected  to  the  plan,  on  the  ground  that  the  New  School 
Church  does  not  now  receive  and  never  has  received  all  the  doctrines 
of  the  Calvinistic  system  in  their  integrity,  and  that,  therefore, 
union  would  not  only  be  inexpedient,  but  morally  wrong.  This  was 
met  by  an  article  in  the  "American  Presbyterian  Eeview"  for  Octo- 


CHURCH    UNION    MOVEMENTS.  315 

ber,  1867,  by  Dr.  Henry  B.  Smith,  denying  this  charge,  and  attempt- 
ing to  prove  that  the  sense  in  which  the  New  School  Church  re- 
ceived the  Confession  was  precisely  that  claimed  as  the  true  one 
by  Dr.  Hodge,  viz.,  the  Calvinistic  or  Reformed.  Both  articles 
were  published  in  pamphlet  form,  and  scattered  far  and  wide,  and 
both,  says  the  late  Dr.  Wm.  Adams,  "tended  to  the  same  result — 
the  conviction  of  the  substantial  oneness  of  both  bodies  in  the  re- 
ceiving and  adopting  the  Confession  of  Faith  in  the  true,  honest,  lib- 
eral, common-sense  and  Presbyterian  significance  of  those  words." 
The  bases  for  reunion  as  amended  were  adopted  by  the  assemblies  in 
New  York  in  May,  1869,  and  were  submitted  to  the  presbyteries. 
At  an  adjourned  meeting  of  the  two  assemblies  the  next  November, 
in  Pittsburg,  the  returns  from  the  presbyteries  showed  an  over- 
whelming majority  in  favor  of  reunion,  and  in  May,  1870,  the  first 
reunited  assembly  met  in  Philadelphia  amid  the  rejoicings  of  innu- 
merable saints  and  the  congratulations  of  sister  churches  all  over  the 
world.  Five  years  later,  in  1875,  the  Presbyterians  of  Canada,  who 
had  existed  in  almost  as  great  variety  as  those  of  the  United  States, 
all  united  in  one  body,  called  the  Presbyterian  Church  of  Canada. 

Another  great  union  movement  is  that  which  brought  together 
all  the  Methodist  churches  in  Canada.  In  1873  there  were  six 
Methodist  churches  in  Canada;  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church  in 
the  Eastern  Provinces,  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church  in  Ontario 
and  Quebec — two  churches  historically  and  organically  separate — 
the  Methodist  New  Connection  Church  in  Canada,  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  in  Canada,  the  Primitive  Methodist  Church  in 
Canada,  and  the  Bible  Christian  Church.  The  note  for  the  bringing 
together  of  these  bodies  was  struck  by  Rev.  Dr.  E.  H.  Dewart,  in 
1870.  In  the  fall  of  1870  an  informal  meeting  of  representatives 
of  different  Methodist  bodies  was  held  at  the  house  of  the  editor  of 
the  "Christian  Guardian,"  Dr.  Dewart,  in  Toronto.  From  the  be- 
ginning this  powerful  journal  threw  the  whole  weight  of  its  influ- 
ence on  this  side.  In  1873  a  plan  for  union  was  adopted  by  the 
Wesleyan  Methodist  Conference  of  Upper  and  Lower  Canada,  by 
the  New  Connection  Methodist  Conference,  and  by  the  Wesleyan 
Methodist  Conference  of  the  Eastern  Provinces.  The  first  united 
General  Conference  was  held  in  Toronto,  September,  1874— the 
first  time  in  history  when  laymen  were  accorded  equal  representa- 
tion in  the  chief  court  of  any  large  Methodist  Church.  The  name 
chosen  for  the  united  church  was  the  Methodist  Church  of  Canada. 


316  CHRISTENDOM. 

This  irenic  result  was  an  object  lesson  which  the  other  churches 
could  not  resist.  The  Ecumenical  Conference  in  London,  in  1881, 
intensified  the  desire  for  union.  In  1883  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  in  Canada,  the  Bible  Christian  Church,  and  the  Primitive 
Methodist  Church  in  Canada,  merged  themselves  into  the  larger 
church.  Thus,  where  there  had  been  six,  there  was  henceforth  to  be 
but  one  Methodist  Church  in  Canada.  A  grand  example  has  in  this 
way  been  set  for  other  Methodist  churches  to  follow.  England  is 
looking  in  the  same  direction. 

The  union  of  the  Methodists  in  Australia  may  be  spoken  of  as  a 
virtually  accomplished  fact,  though  some  details  of  final  adjustment 
still  remain  to  be  made  before  its  full  and  formal  consummation. 
The  union  in  Canada  has  been  very  helpful  to  this  similar  movement 
at  the  antipodes.  This  union  comprehends  the  Wesleyans  in  their 
six  annual  conferences  in  the  different  colonies — New  Zealand, 
Queensland,  Victoria  and  Tasmania,  New  South  Wales,  South  Aus- 
tralia and  West  Australia,  and  the  "Minor  Methodists,"  a  convenient 
group  name  for  the  Primitives,  the  United  Free  Church  and  the 
Bible  Christians.  The  Wesleyans,  the  United  Free  and  the  Bible 
Christian  churches  in  New  Zealand  united  in  1896,  the  Primitives 
still  standing  aloof;  the  Wesleyans  and  the  Primitives  of  Queens- 
land united  in  1898;  and  the  South  and  West  Australia  bodies  came 
together  in  1900.  Victoria  and  Tasmania  have  agreed  to  consum- 
mate their  union  in  1902,  and  the  New  South  Wales  Wesleyan  Con- 
ference in  1899  voted  in  favor  of  union,  which  will  doubtless  be 
carried  into  effect  about  the  same  time  that  result  is  reached  in  Vic- 
toria and  Tasmania. 

Christian  union  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  phases  of  our  Amer- 
ican ecclesiastical  life.  It  is  only  with  recent  years  that  fraternity 
has  predominated  over  denominational  differences.  The  old  the- 
ological controversies  were  so  bitter,  and  men  held  to  their  convic- 
tions with  such  intense  emphasis,  that  it  was  impossible  for  the 
churches  to  co-operate  in  the  spirit  of  Christian  love.  The  great 
revival  of  1857-59  helped  to  dissolve  these  animosities.  The  Evan- 
gelical Alliance,  founded  in  1846,  has  been  a  powerful  agency  in 
bringing  the  churches  into  closer  relationship.  The  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association,  founded  in  London  by  George  Williams, 
June  6,  1844,  attracted  a  great  number  of  young  men  of  all  denom- 
inations into  Christian  work,  and  furnished  a  broad  platform  on 
which  all  churches  could  stand  for  the  furtherance  of  the  Redeem- 


CHURCH    UNION    MOVEMENTS.  317 

er's  Kingdom.  The  growth  of  this  non-sectarian  organization  is 
one  of  the  golden  fruits  of  this  era. 

The  needs  of  the  unevangelized  masses;  the  folly  of  intruding 
denominational  rivalries  into  small  communities  in  our  own  land 
and  in  mission  fields  already  occupied;  the  helplessness  of  a  divided 
church  before  any  great  and  urgent  call ;  the  scandal  to  the  Christian 
name  of  the  spirit  of  division  which  has  had  free  course  in  many 
parts  of  the  country ;  the  perpetual  object  lesson  of  the  Roman  Cath- 
olic Church  in  the  massiveness  and  unity  of  its  impression — these 
and  other  considerations  have  helped  forward  the  conviction  that 
the  time  has  come  when  some  kind  of  a  Bund,  or  federal  union,  or 
alliance — some  method  of  realizing  an  interdenominational  fellow- 
ship— is  imperatively  demanded.  The  noble  work  of  that  best  of 
all  non-sectarian  organizations,  the  American  Bible  Society,  formed 
in  1816  in  New  York — a  society  which  for  nearly  a  century  has  been 
the  meeting-ground  of  Christians  of  every  name — has  shown  that 
such  a  communion  of  labor  and  counsel  is  entirely  practicable.  The 
growth  of  Christian  union  has  been  also  helped  by  the  formation  of 
the  Young  People's  Society  of  Christian  Endeavor,  organized  in 
Portland,  Me.,  by  the  Rev.  Francis  E.  Clark,  in  1881.  This  society 
emphasizes  loyalty  to  one's  own  church  as  one  of  its  cardinal  princi- 
ples. But  it  has  interdenominational  features  which  give  it  a 
unique  and  splendid  advantage.  This  recent  development  of  the 
Christian  activity  of  America  has  had  a  marvelous  growth  in  all 
evangelical  denominations,  and  has  contributed  toward  the  realiza- 
tion of  the  sense  of  Christian  brotherhood  and  of  the  oneness  of  all 
of  Christ's  followers. 

The  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  has  the  honor  of  being  the  first 
to  institute  proceedings  looking  toward  the  reunion  of  Protestantism. 
In  its  General  Convention,  held  in  Chicago  in  1886,  the  House  of 
Bishops  submitted  a  plan  by  which  it  was  thought -the  churches 
might  take  initial  steps  toward  organic  union.  This  basis  was  en- 
dorsed by  the  convention,  and  it  has  been  submitted  to  the  other 
Christian  churches  for  their  action.  It  puts  forward  the  Apostles' 
and  the  Nicene  Creeds  as  an  expression  of  doctrine,  the  Bible  as  the 
rule  of  faith,  the  sacraments  of  the  Lord's  Supper  and  baptism,  and 
the  historic  episcopate.  The  overtures  have  received  cordial  wel- 
come in  many  quarters,  and  in  others  only  indifferent  attention. 
The  chief  difficulty  seems  to  be  in  the  interpretation  of  the  '"historic 
episcopate."     The  consummation  of  some  form  of  tangible  and  vis- 


318  CHRISTENDOM. 

ible  Christian  union  is  the  great  need  of  the  modern  church..  But 
there  is  no  likelihood  that  this  fruition  will  ever  be  reached  on  the 
basis  of  any  definite  form  of  ecclesiastical  polity.  A  declaration 
identical  in  terms  with  that  of  the  House  of  Bishops  of  the  Protes- 
tant Episcopal  Church  was  set  forth  by  the  conference  of  all  the 
bishops  throughout  the  world  in  fellowship  with  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, held  at  the  Lambeth  Conference,  London,  in  the  summer  of 
1888.  But  the  almost  unanimous  report  of  the  Committee  on  Chris- 
tian Union,  appointed  by  the  chairman  of  this  conference,  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury,  in  which  the  acceptance  of  the  "historic 
episcopate"  was  interpreted  as  not  necessarily  invalidating  the  ordi- 
nations of  other  churches,  was  voted  down  by  a  large  majority  and 
even  its  publication  suppressed. 

In  1895  twenty-one  leading  American  ministers  voluntarily  joined 
themselves  in  a  league  for  the  promotion  of  Catholic  unity  on  the 
basis  of  the  four  Chicago-Lambeth  articles.  Seven  of  these  were 
members  of  Episcopal,  seven  of  Presbyterial,  and  seven  of  Congrega- 
tional polities. 

In  May,  1893,  the  Commission  on  Church  Unity  of  the  General 
Convention  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  sent  to  the  General 
Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  at  its  session  in  Washington, 
a  communication  embodying  the  views  of  the  commission,  and  in- 
ferentially  of  a  large  part  of  the  clergy  and  laity  of  the  Episcopal 
Church,  to  the  effect  (1)  that  the  law  relating  to  the  episcopate  is 
subject,  if  exigency  arise,  to  modification  or  change;  (2)  that  the 
Episcopal  Church  is  willing  to  qualify,  if  necessary,  the  law  regulat- 
ing the  episcopate,  and  many  other  things  which  it  has  held  in  high 
esteem ;  (3)  that  it  now  gives  recognition  to  the  validity  of  the  Pres- 
bytorate  as  the  Presbyterians  of  England,  under  Baxter's  leadership, 
asked  in  IGHO.  This  paper  also  contained  other  statements  promo- 
tive of  a  better  mutual  acquaintance  and  comity  of  feeling  in  order 
to  secure  a  "drawing  together  to  the  final  attainment  of  corporate 
unity — the  goal  never  to  be  lost  sight  of  or  in  any  way  obscured." 
The  reply  of  the  Committee  on  Christian  Unity  of  the  General  As- 
sembly of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  couched  in  conciliatory  lan- 
guage, declares  a  similar  readiness  to  modify  usages,  laws  or  tra- 
ditions, which,  however  highly  prized  and  valuable,  are  not  funda- 
mental in  their  nature,  provided  the  reunion  of  the  two  bodies  could 
be  thus  secured.  It  also  expresses  the  hope  that  the  question  of  re- 
union might  yet  reach  a  full  solution,  and  that  the  American  Church 


CHURCH    UNION    MOVEMENTS.  319 

might  yet  find,  through  wise  and  Scriptural  methods,  an  effectual 
reorganization. 

The  validity  of  ministerial  orders  in  the  Anglican  Church  was 
ostensibly  made  the  subject  of  a  fresh  investigation  by  a  special 
commission  of  the  Eoman  Catholic  Church,  and  the  decision  of  the 
hierarchical  court,  composed  of  cardinals,  was  given  out  by  Pope  Leo 
XIII  in  an  apostolic  letter  on  September  15,  1896,  declaring  the 
English  orders  null  and  void.  The  clear  and  unmistakable  lan- 
guage of  the  Pontiff  is :  "Of  our  own  motion  and  certain  knowledge 
we  pronounce  and  declare  that  ordinations  carried  out  according  to 
the  Anglican  Eite  have  been  and  are  absolutely  nuU  and  utterly 
void."  Thus  disappeared  the  hope  of  many  of  the  High  Church 
Anglicans  that  a  basis  of  union  with  the  Roman  Catholic  Church 
might  be  found  in  the  historic  episcopate  as  interpreted  both  at 
Canterbury  and  at  Rome. 

In  February,  1888,  a  general  meeting  of  all  Protestant  mission- 
aries in  Mexico  was  held,  at  which,  among  other  important  acts,  the 
following  plan  of  denominational  comity  was  adopted : 

1.  Towns  of  15,000  or  more  inhabitants,  not  now  occupied,  may 
be  entered  by  more  than  one  denomination.  2.  In  places  of  less 
than  15,000  population,  occupied  by  more  than  one  mission,  the  old- 
est mission  shall  have  the  right  of  sole  occupancy,  save  in  the  case  of 
private  agreement  between  the  interested  parties.  3.  A  place  for- 
mally occupied  by  a  denomination,  and  abandoned  for  a  year  or 
more,  may  be  occupied  by  another  denomination.  4.  The  organiza- 
tion of  a  congregation  and  the  holding  of  regular  services  constitute 
occupancy.  5.  A  committee  of  arbitration,  to  consist  of  one  member 
of  each  denomination,  was  appointed  to  decide  questions  arising 
under  this  plan  of  arbitration,  and  its  decision  is  final. 

Dr.  John  Watson  (Ian  Maclaren),  in  his  "The  Mind  of  the 
Master"  (1896),  has  set  forth  an  ideal  creed  as  a  basis  of  union 
amons:  all  Christian  believers.  It  runs  as  follows:  "I  believe  in 
the  fatherhood  of  God ;  I  believe  in  the  words  of  Jesus ;  I  believe  in 
the  clean  heart;  I  believe  in  the  service  of  love;  I  believe  in  the 
unworldly  life ;  I  believe  in  the  Beatitudes ;  I  promise  to  trust  God 
and  follow  Christ,  to  forgive  my  enemies,  and  to  seek  after  the 
righteousness  of  God." 

Conferences  for  the  discussion  of  theological  and  practical  ques- 
tions have  brought  the  various  Reformed  churches  into  fraternal 
communion,  which  has  issued  in  the  formation  of  the  Alliance  of 


320 


CHRISTENDOM. 


Reformed  Churches  throughout  the  world  holding  the  Presbyterian 

system,  which  held  its  first  general  council  in  Edinburgh,  1877, 
and  its  last  in  Washington,  1899.  A  like  friendly  feeling  of  all  the 
Methodist  churches  in  the  world  has  been  consummated,  of  which 
the  fruit  is  the  first  Ecumenical  Conference  in  London,  1881 ;  the 
second  in  Washington,  1891,  and  the  third  in  London,  1901.  It  is 
to  be  devoutly  hoped  that  these  union  meetings  for  discussion  will 
lead  to  an  organic  union  for  work,  as  well  as  for  an  exhibition  of  that 
real  brotherhood  and  unity  of  spirit  which  form  one  of  the  essen- 
tial prerequisites  to  the  conversion  of  the  world. 


CHURCH  FEDERATION  IN  OLD  WORLD 
AND  NEW. 


Rev.  Walter  Laidlaw,  Ph.D., 

]!«rEW   YORK. 

The  Reformation  was  the  inevitable  result  of  irrational  restraint 
upon  the  liberty  of  human  thought.  Mediaeval  Christianity  at- 
tempted the  folly  of  compelling  men  to  think  alike  or  not  to  think 
at  all. 

The  thoughts  of  men  on  subjects  so  vast  as  God,  responsibility  and 
immortality,  can  no  more  coincide  than  can  the  orbits  of  the  planets. 
All  theological  systems  are  variously  illmnined  by  the  True  Light 
that  lighteth  every  man  coming  into  the  world,  and  any  system  that 
claims  a  monopoly  of  light  from  above,  and  such  celestial  eminence 
as  to  cast  all  others  into  the  shade,  forgets  that  the  sun's  light  falls 
on  Mars  and  Jupiter  as  well  as  on  the  earth. 

The  right  of  private  judgment,  for  which  Luther  successfully  con- 
tended, has  been  reasserted  by  the  cleavages  of  Protestantism.  Some 
Protestant  communions,  without  doubt,  have  crystallized  around 
charlatans  seeking  personal  triumph  rather  than  the  perfecting  of 
truth.  Nevertheless,  on  the  whole,  the  multiplicity  of  Protestant 
communions  is  a  witness  to  the  vitality  of  the  principles  of  Protes- 
tantism rather  than  to  their  decay.  As  Rosenkranz  wrote  in  1831, 
"The  premises  of  Christian  theological  study  are:  (a)  The  Chris- 
tian religion,  as  the  religion  of  essential  truth  and  freedom,  is  the 
absolute  religion;  (b)  Protestantism  is  not  the  dissolution  and  anni- 
hilation of  religion,  but  rather  its  evolution  into  an  affirmative  self- 
consciousness  of  its  future;  (c)  a  reconciliation  of  Christian  theology 
and  philosophy  is  possible." 

Protestant  Christianity  not  only  claims  that  it  is  in  harmony 
with  the  Bible,  but  that  its  principles  are  in  harmony  with  the  high- 
est order  of  the  universe,  and  unity  in  thinking  can  no  more  be  ex- 
pected in  religious  matters  than  in  scientific  affairs,  for  the  simple 
reason  there  can  be  no  finality  in  religion  until  there  is  finality  in 
ecience.  The  content  of  final  science  will  be  a  content  of  final  re- 
ligious philosophy.     Some  of  the  bizarre  Protestantisms  of  recent 

321 


322  CHRISTENDOM. 

times,  stripped  of  all  unscientific  accretions,  may  have  enduring  re- 
ligious value,  because  they  possess  a  scientific  element  as  yet  unrecog- 
nized by  an  exaggerated  supernaturalism.  Absolute  unity  in  think- 
ing is  less  and  less  a  Protestant  ideal  as  time  goes  on.  Organic 
union  of  Protestantism,  consolidating  the  many  into  one — who  shall 
worship  in  one  way,  is  giving  place  to  attempts  at  organic  union  of 
many  who  may  worship  in  many  ways — witness  the  effort,  renewed 
lor  many  years,  and  almost  successful  in  September,  1901,  to  unite, 
under  Episcopalian  oversight  in  America,  congregations  worshipping 
by  Lutheran  liturgies  with  congregations  using  liturgies  of  English 
and  Reformed  origin,  and  the  advocacy,  by  Dr.  Parker,  in  England, 
of  the  organic  unity  of  the  Baptists  and  Congregationalists.  Unity 
in  thinking  and  even  unity  in  worshipping  are  not  therefore  instincts 
of  the  time;  but  increased  efficiency  in  religious  work  is  a  demand 
of  the  time,  especially  in  congested  cities,  and  federation  to  effect  it 
undoubtedly  is  inspired  by  that  Spirit  of  Power  without  whom  noth- 
ing good  or  lasting  can  be  achieved. 

The  instincts  of  church  federation,  in  the  Old  World  and  in  the 
New,  are  therefore  one  in  many  particulars ;  nevertheless.  Old  World 
federation  is  as  different  from  New  World  federation  as  is  monarchy 
from  republicanism.  Their  historical  origins  are  absolutely  alike, 
their  surrounding  conditions  are  entirely  different;  their  methods 
have  but  a  faint  resemblance;  and  their  future  will  have  greater 
divergences  than  their  past. 


OLD  WORLD — CnUECH  AND  STATE. 

Church  federation  in  the  Old  World  is  primarily  a  consolidation 
of  Nonconformity  for  the  purpose  of  displaying  and  employing  its 
strength  against  the  aggressions  of  a  State  Church.  Those  aggres- 
sions, between  1880  and  1900,  had  become  especially  irritating  to 
English  dissenters,  and  additional  irritation  was  caused  by  the  indis- 
creet utterances,  in  1889,  of  some  of  the  High  Church  Anglicans  at 
the  Church  Congress  of  that  year.  There  are  adherents  of  Canter- 
bury's orders  whose  claims  to  supernatural  sanctions  are  not  exceeded 
by  the  adherents  of  the  Vatican ;  and  the  extent  of  Nonconformity 
in  England  proves  that  Englishmen  are  as  hesitant  to  believe  in  the 
centering  of  truth  around  Canterbury  as  is  generic  Protestantism  to 
make  all  truth  centre  around  the  chair  of  St.  Peter. 

Impelled  by  the  utterances  of  the  Church  Congress,  Dr.  Guiness 


FEDERATION    OF    CHURCHES.  323 

Rogers  contributed,  February  30,  1890,  to  the  "Methodist  Times," 
an  article  entitled  "A  Congress  of  Free  Churches."  If  there  was  a 
congress  of  workers  under  the  State  Church,  why  should  there  not  be 
a  congress  of  workers  from  the  Free  churches  ? 

England's  early  congresses. 

Two  years  later  the  first  Free  Church  Congress  met  at  Manches- 
ter, in  November,  and  a  second  was  held  at  Leeds  in  the  following 
year.  In  the  interval  between  the  Manchester  and  Leeds  Congress 
several  Free  Church  Local  Councils  had  been  organized.  Most  of 
these  councils  were  a  development  from  the  "Ministers'  Fraternals," 
which,  in  English  usage,  correspond  with  "Ministers'  Association" 
or  "Ministers'  Union"  in  America.  The  development  effected  had 
extended  the  Ministers'  Fraternals  into  "Church  Councils"  by  adding 
to  the  clergymen  lay  delegates  from  the  churches  which  they  served, 
and  by  making  the  meetings  of  the  Fraternals  more  positively  prac- 
tical in  purpose.  Prior  to  1890  there  were  but  four  of  these  coun- 
cils in  all  of  England,  but  in  1895,  when  the  third  congress  met  at 
Birmingham,  its  membership  was  largely  made  up  of  representatives 
of  the  councils,  which  then  numbered  one  hundred  and  thirty.  The 
Leeds  Congress  had  decided  that  the  Birmingham  meeting  should  be 
constituted  on  a  territorial  basis  rather  than  a  denominational  basis ; 
and  at  Birmingham  a  further  forward  step  was  taken  by  electing  a 
president  whose  duties  should  not  expire  with  the  adjournment  of 
the  Congress,  but  endure  to  the  convening  of  the  next.  Dr.  Charles 
A.  Berry,  of  Wolverhampton,  who  was  the  first  choice  of  Plymouth 
pulpit  after  the  death  of  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  was  elected  to  this 
new  and  important  position,  and  continued,  until  his  sudden  and 
lamented  death,  to  speak  and  labor  for  the  movement  on  both  sides 
of  the  Atlantic.  Dr.  Berry's  elevation  to  the  presidency  was  largely 
due  to  the  vigor  of  the  Wolverhampton  Free  Chureh  Council,  of 
which  he  had  been  founder  and  president,  and  the  constitution  of 
the  Wolverhampton  Free  Church  Council  is  a  good  illustration  of 
the  spirit  and  aims  of  the  original  movement. 

It  announces  two  general  objects : 

(a)  To  enable  evangelical  Free  churchmen  to  take  united  action 
upon  all  matters  that  concern  their  common  interests. 

(b)  To  bring  the  united  influences  of  the  Free  churches  to  bear 
upon  all  questions  that  relate  to  the  moral,  social  and  religious  con- 
dition of  the  people. 


324  CHKISTENDOM. 


CONTRAST  WITH  AMERICA. 


A  glance  at  these  two  objects  shows  that  self-defence  is  as  primal 
in  the  federation  movement  in  the  Old  World  as  is  self-devotion. 
Nowhere  in  the  New  World  is  there  a  federation  of  churches  which 
includes  in  its  constitution  a  clause  committing  it,  even  by  implica- 
tion, to  combat  with  other  Christian  bodies.  There  are  many  people 
in  America  who  are  timid  concerning  the  aggressions  of  Romanism, 
but  no  federation  of  churches  in  America  would  think  of  sounding  a 
battle-cry  against  Romanism  in  the  list  of  its  objects,  and  still  less,  of 
course,  would  any  American  federation  sound  a  battle-cry  against 
any  form  of  Protestantism,  unless,  indeed,  it  were  Mormonism,  in 
which  case  the  casus  belli  would  not  be  theological  but  sociological. 
The  happy  severance  of  church  and  state  in  America  permits  Amer- 
ican federation  to  be  much  broader  than  the  federations  of  the  Old 
World ;  and,  in  the  future  of  federation  work,  it  is  more  likely  that 
the  Old  World  will  learn  from  the  New,  than  that  the  New  will  learn 
from  the  Old.  When  Dr.  Berry  visited  America  in  1896,  he  learned, 
to  his  great  surprise,  that  the  Episcopalian  Church,  which  is  ex- 
cluded from  the  Old  World  federation,  is  heartily  co-operant  in 
federation  work  in  the  New  World's  largest  city.  At  a  meeting  in 
New  York  City,  which  Dr.  Berry  addressed,  Prof.  Henry  S.  Nash, 
of  the  Episcopalian  Divinity  School,  Cambridge,  Mass.,  also  spoke 
and,  after  listening  to  Prof.  Nash's  brilliant  address  on  "The  Need 
of  Formulating  Theology  in  the  Midst  of  the  Problems  of  Life," 
Dr.  Berry  said : 

"I  am  not  telling  you  what  you  ought  to  be  and  do ;  I  am  telling 
you  what  we  have  been  forced  to  become,  and  what  we  are  striving 
to  accomplish.  We,  in  our  federation,  have  been  compelled,  not 
by  any  ideas  of  sentiment,  but  by  the  actual  situation,  to  form  our- 
selves quite  independently  of  the  Episcopal  Church  in  England.  I 
rejoice  that  it  is  not  so  in  America." 

ADDITIONAL  CONTRASTS. 

The  Wolverhampton  Free  Church  Council's  objects  deserve  yet 
more  detailed  study  as  an  exhibit  of  the  peculiar  conditions  sur- 
rounding the  Old  World  federations.  The  first  group  is  listed  in 
the  constitution  as  follows : 

1.  The  maintenance  of  New  Testament  simplicity  in  the  faith  and 
practice  of  the  church. 


FEDERATION    OF    CHURCHES.  325 

2.  The  exposition  and  defence  of  Free  Church  principles  by  means 
of  such  agencies  as  may  be  deemed  advisable  from  time  to  time. 

3.  The  question  of  supplying  the  religious  needs  of  hospitals, 
workhouses  and  similar  institutions. 

4.  The  education  question. 

5.  The  due  representation  of  Free  churchmen  on  municipal, 
county,  district  and  parish  councils,  local  boards,  school  boards, 
boards  of  guardians,  and  other  public  representative  bodies. 

6.  The  question  of  religious  persecution  and  intolerance. 

All  of  the  foregoing  detailed  objects  are  specified  under  the  first 
general  object  of  the  Wolverhampton  Free  Council,  and  it  is  plain 
that  several  of  them  would  be  anachronistic  and  useless  in  any 
American  federation. 

The  first  is  an  object  which  in  America  would  be  attained  not  by  a 
federation,  but  by  evangelical  movements  within  any  communion 
whose  churches  should  depart  from  New  Testament  simplicity.  High 
Church  theory  in  America  has  not,  in  any  communion,  reached  such 
disturbing  proportions  as  to  call  for  a  federation  of  all  churches  to 
defeat  its  philosophy  or  its  practical  power. 

From  the  second  object  of  the  Wolverhampton  Free  Church  Local 
Council,  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  defends  the  nation 
as  a  whole,  and  every  constituent  state,  though  there  are  some  efforts 
to  connect  the  resources  of  state  treasuries  with  particular  com- 
munions which  have  in  the  past  needed,  and  may  again  need,  the  de- 
fence of  more-  restrictive  enactment,  in  the  periodical  revision  of 
state  constitutions,  for  the  practical  severance  of  church  and  state. 
The  education  question  is  agitated  by  the  Roman  Church  in  America 
to  the  end  of  securing  for  parochial  schools  the  assistance  of  public 
funds;  but  American  churches  do  not  need  to  be  federated  to  deal 
even  with  that,  for  Roman  Catholicism  itself  is  not  -a  unit  on  the 
education  question,  and  there  is  not  a  single  school  in  the  United 
States  where,  as  in  England,  Scotland  and  Ireland,  catechetical  in- 
struction is  given  in  school  hours  at  the  public  charge.  The  ques- 
tion of  supplying  the  religious  needs  of  hospitals,  workhouses  and 
similar  institutions,  has  been,  and  will  continue  to  be,  a  concern  of 
American  federations,  but  the  object  of  such  federative  effort  is  not 
to  defend  invalids  from  unwelcome  Erastian  instruction,  but  to 
secure,  by  a  cooperative  method,  efficient  and  adequate  religious  and 
consolatory  care  for  the  unfortunate  inmates  of  public  institutions. 

The  fifth  and  sixth  objects  of  the  anti- Anglican  constitution  of  the 


326  CHRISTENDOM. 

Wolverhampton  Free  Church  Council  are  happily  unnecessary  in 
America,  and  it  would,  in  fact,  be  unconstitutional  to  strive  for  the 
realization  of  the  fifth.  There  can  be  no  direct  recognition  of  any 
church  or  communion  in  the  make-up  of  municipal,  county,  and 
parish  councils  in  the  United  States,  nor  yet  on  local  boards,  school 
boards  or  any  other  public  representative  bodies. 

There  was  a  joeriod  in  American  religious  history  when  persecu- 
tion and  intolerance  characterized  the  relationships  of  religious 
bodies  to  one  another,  but  no  parallel  can  be  now  found  in  the  United 
States  to  the  tales  which  are  told,  in  the  English  Federation  reports, 
of  the  need  of  forswearing  private  faith  in  order  to  secure  public 
office  or  industrial  positions. 

Any  American  who  studies  the  detailed  objects  of  the  English 
Free  Church  Councils  cannot  but  devoutly  thank  God  for  the  larger 
opportunities  for  federation  in  America  arising  from  the  severance 
of  church  and  state. 

SOCIOLOGICAL   OBJECTS. 

The  sociological  scope  of  the  Wolverhampton  Council,  as  shown  by 
the  detail  of  its  second  general  object,  is  exceedingly  broad. 

It  calls  upon  the  federated  Free  churches  to  bring  their  influence 
to  bear  upon  the  following  questions : 

1.  The  condition  of  the  lapsed  and  lost,  and  how  to  reclaim  them 
for  Christ. 

2.  The  suppression  of  sweating,  overcrowding,  social  vice,  gam- 
bling, betting  and  other  evils. 

3.  The  liquor  traffic,  licensing  of  public  houses,  music  and  dancing 
saloons,  promotion  of  temperance. 

4.  The  opium  traffic,  and  prohibition  of  the  liquor  traffic  with 
heathen  countries. 

5.  The  adoption  of  the  principle  of  arbitration  in  international 
and  industrial  disputes. 

6.  The  maintenance  of  a  high  moral  standard  in  public  men  and 
institutions. 

7.  United  evangelistic  and  other  services. 

With  nearly  all  of  the  foregoing  sociological  objects  American 
federations  have  expressed  their  sympathy,  but  one  cannot  read  the 
list  without  a  feeling  that  the  English  Federation  movement  would 
be  very  much  stronger  if  the  Free  churches  and  State  churches  of 
Great  Britain  were  federated  for  objects  which  are  evidently  com- 


FEDERATION    OF    CHURCHES.  327 

mon  to  all  churches,  whether  Free  or  State.  It  may  be  that,  in  the 
future,  the  impossibility  of  meeting  the  sociological  needs  of  English 
cities  will  compel  the  State  and  Free  churches  to  federate ;  and  that 
the  first  general  object  of  the  Wolverhampton  Free  Church  Council, 
and  all  other  similar  councils,  will  be  accomplished  through  an 
organization  which  will  not  seek  to  unite,  in  the  same  constitution,  a 
declaration  of  battle  against  some  of  the  Lord's  servants  and  a  sense 
of  devotion  to  the  whole  community. 

COUNCIL  MEMBERSHIP. 

The  National  Council  of  the  Evangelical  Free  Churches  of  Great 
Britain  consists  of  representatives  of  local  councils  similar  to  the 
Wolverhampton  Free  Church  Council,  and  of  district  federations, 
which  frequently  are  federations  of  the  local  councils  of  an  entire 
county.  There  are  about  700  councils  and  there  are  thirty-six  fed- 
erations. 

It  was  at  the  Fourth  National  Congress  of  the  Evangelical 
Free  Churches  of  England  and  Wales,  held  in  Nottingham,  in 
March,  1896,  that  the  present  name  of  the  English  movement,  "The 
National  Council  of  the  Evangelical  Free  Churches,"  was  adopted. 
Hugh  Price  Hughes  was  the  president  of  that  year,  and  the  change 
of  the  name  of  the  organization  has  been  followed  by  increasing 
emphasis  upon  its  spiritual  and  sociological  aspects,  while  the  po- 
litical aspects  of  the  movement  have  been  given  secondary  attention. 
"Council"  sounds  less  combative  than  Free  Church  "Congress."  In 
his  presidential  address  at  Nottingham,  Hugh  Price  Hughes  devoted 
considerable  time  to  proving  that  the  movement  is  "not  political  but 
distinctly  Christian  and  ecclesiastical."  The  leaders  of  the  move- 
ment are  fond  of  reiterating  this  claim.  At  the  Cardiff  Council, 
1901,  the  official  report  claimed  that  "The  movement  has  been,  from 
the  beginning,  first  of  all  preeminently  spiritual.  The  fear  that  the 
councils  would  meddle  with  party  politics,  and  that  the  movement 
would,  in  consequence,  be  wrecked,  has,  we  believe,  entirely  passed 
away.  It  is  now  seldom  expressed  at  all.  During  the  past  year  we 
have  had  the  general  election,  and  party  feeling  has,  in  many  quar- 
ters, run  high,  but  we  quite  confidently  assert  that  never  for  a  mo- 
ment has  the  movement  been  in  peril,  and  that  not  a  single  local 
council  has  even  been  temporarily  paralyzed  by  the  gravest  differ- 
ences in  political  opinion.'' 


328  CHRISTENDOM. 

This  has  quite  a  reassuring  ring,  but  American  people  are  bound 
to  perceive,  even  in  the  latest  developments  of  the  Council  of  the 
Evangelical  Free  Churches,  an  underlying  purpose  which  is  pro- 
nouncedly political. 

CATECHETICS   ON    CHURCH   AND   STATE. 

Through  the  cooperation  of  many  leaders  a  catechism  has  been 
prepared,  for  use  in  religious  and  secular  schools,  with  fifty- 
two  questions  and  answers,  a  question  for  each  week  of  the 
year.  Four  weeks  of  the  year  are,  in  this  catechism,  given  to 
the  consideration  of  the  relation  of  church  and  state.  That  very 
fact  is  the  proof  of  two  things:  first,  that  the  Free  Church 
catechism,  unamended,  will  have  no  large  circulation  in  America, 
where  it  is  not  worth  while  to  give  a  whole  month  of  the  year  to  the 
discussion  of  a  question  which  was  settled  over  a  hundred  years  ago ; 
second,  that  the  political  question  of  the  relationship  of  church  and 
state  is  so  important  in  Great  Britain  that  a  whole  month  of  cate- 
chetical instruction  can  profitably  be  devoted  to  it. 

A  study  of  the  results  of  the  English  work,  as  stated  in  the  annual 
reports  of  the  Organizing  Secretary  for  1900  and  1901,  shows  that 
the  combating  and  curbing  of  the  aggressions  of  the  State  Church 
bulk  fully  as  large  as  general  sociological  results.  This  is  true  both 
in  the  work  of  the  district  federations  and  in  the  work  of  the  local 
councils,  which  are  the  federations  of  particular  towns  and  cities. 

RESULTS — DEFENSIVELY   AND   DEVOTIVELY. 

Some  of  the  results  especially  mentioned  in  these  reports,  and 
here  divided  into  two  sections,  namely,  results  connected  with  the 
combat  between  the  Free  churches  and  the  State  Church,  and  results 
connected  with  increased  community  service,  are  as  follows: 

I.  Results  connected  with  the  combat  between  the  Free  churches 
and  the  State  Church. 

1.  Lectures  on  Free  Church  topics,  given  under  the  auspices  of 
district  federations  and  local  councils,  on  such  subjects  as  "The 
Basis  and  Aims  of  Nonconformity";  "Rome,  Reform,  and  Reac- 
tion"; "The  Priesthood  and  Its  Theological  Assumption";  Oliver 
Cromwell's  "Struggle  for  Liberty,"  and  Ian  Maclaren's  sermon  on 
^'Apostolic  Succession." 

2.  Classes  in  church  history ;  the  history  of  the  Reformation,  etc. 


GENERAL   NEAL   DOW. 


FEDERATION    OF    CHURCHES.  329 

In  many  of  these  classes  prizes  are  offered  to  the  student  who  passes 
the  best  examination  on  subjects  connected  with  the  question  of  the 
proper  relationship  of  church  and  state  and  on  the  Free  Church  doc- 
trine of  ministerial  orders. 

3.  Pamphlets  prepared  and  distributed  on  such  topics  as  "The 
Strength  of  the  Free  Church,"  "pointing  out  the  significance  of  the 
figures;"  "Christian  Citizenship,"  "showing  the  opportunities  pre- 
sented to  Free  churchmen  to  exercise  their  political  rights  in  the  in- 
terests of  the  Kingdom  of  God." 

4.  Attention  to  local  elections  where  the  interests  of  Free  church- 
men were  at  stake. 

5.  Watching  the  action  of  boards  of  guardians,  etc. 

6.  Chaplains  appointed  to  serve  in  workhouses,  etc.,  where,  here- 
tofore, only  representatives  of  the  State  Church  had  been  employed, 
or  in  "alternation  with  the  Anglican  chaplain,  who  hitherto  has  had 
the  monopoly." 

7.  Undenominational  day  schools  established. 

8.  Oversight  of  boarding  schools  to  secure,  for  Free  Church  board- 
ers, rights  of  attendance  at  Free  Church  services. 

9.  United  action  to  secure  "a  majority  of  Nonconformist  represen- 
tatives on  school  boards." 

10.  United  action  to  secure  Free  Church  cemeteries. 

11.  United  action  to  enforce  the  Conscience  Clause  Act  of  1870. 

12.  Initiation  of  a  registry  system  for  domestic  servants,  per- 
mitting them,  without  change  of  religious  adherence,  to  secure  do- 
mestic positions. 

13.  Appointment  of  a  committee  to  investigate  the  administration 
of  charitable  and  educational  trusts,  to  see  whether  these  are  not 
being  directed  for  the  benefit  of  the  State  Church. 

14.  Free  Church  services  established  by  guarantee;  funds  at  Grin- 
delwald,  Chamounix,  Zermatt,  Engclberg,  St.  BeatcnBerg,  Geneva, 
Framnaes,  Eide,  UUensvang,  and  other  continental  summer  resorts. 
These  services  are  said  to  be  necessary  to  counteract  the  "offensive 
ritualism"  of  Anglican  chaplains  abroad. 

15.  Preparation  of  a  Free  Church  catechism  for  use  by  the  Free 
churches.  About  300,000  copies  of  this  catechism  were  in  use  in 
1901,  and  the  National  Council  refused  the  Liverpool  School  Board, 
which  was  under  Anglican  control,  permission  to  use  it,  unless  the 
questions  relative  to  church  and  state,  and  to  the  sacraments,  which 
had  been  changed  by  the  Board,  were  restored  to  their  original  form. 


330  CHRISTENDOM. 

16.  Circulating  libraries  to  increase  acquaintance  with  Free 
Church  literature  and  history.  Three  hundred  boxes,  containing 
from  thirty  to  sixty  volumes  apiece,  were  in  circulation  in  1900. 

II.  Results  of  increased  community  service. 

1.  Union  open-air  services. 

2.  United  missions. 

3.  House-to-house  visitations. 

4.  Temperance  conferences  and  legislation. 

5.  Secural  of  lists  of  volunteer  Sunday-school  teachers,  ready  on 
two  days'  notice  to  fill  vacancies  in  village  schools. 

6.  Overlapping  "amicably  disposed  of."  One  instance  of  this  de- 
serves especial  mention.  At  Bristol  the  Congregational  Church  Ex- 
tension Committee  served  notice  on  the  Church  Extension  commit- 
tees of  other  bodies  of  its  purpose  to  build  six  chapels.  "To  avoid 
overlapping,  and  also  to  secure  the  whole  city  being  cared  for,  in  any 
case  of  need,  a  conference  shall  be  held  between  us  and  either  of  the 
denominations  whose  plans  may  in  any  way  be  touched  by  these  sug- 
gestions as  to  localities  as  named  above ;  and  we  shall  hold  our  hand, 
as  far  as  sites  are  concerned,  until  the  end  of  this  month,  so  that 
there  may  be  proper  brotherly  consultation."  As  a  result  of  this, 
one  of  the  chapels  yielded  to  the  Presbyterians. 

7.  Cycling  corps  established  for  the  distribution  of  tracts  and  the 
holding  of  open-air  services. 

8.  United  action  against  Sunday  newspapers  at  Swinton  and  in 
London.  In  the  former  place  the  Romish  priests  joined  in  the  move- 
ment. It  was  agreed,  in  order  to  suppress  the  Sunday  newspapers : 
(a)  That  no  advertisements  should  be  inserted  in  papers  issuing  a 
Sunday  edition,  (b)  That  week-day  papers  issuing  Sunday  edi- 
tions should  not  be  purchased  by  Free  Churchmen,  (c)  That  news- 
dealers refusing  to  handle  the  Sunday  papers  should  be  given  the 
preference  by  Free  Churchmen.  Mr.  Cadbury  cooperated  with  this 
movement  by  withdrawing  all  his  advertisements  of  his  food  prod- 
ucts from  the  Sunday  papers,  and  the  "Daily  Mail"  and  other 
strong  newspapers  were  forced  out  of  the  Sunday  issue  business, 

9.  Lectures  on  Bible  study  for  the  benefit  of  Sunday-school  work- 
ers and  local  preachers. 

10.  Distribution  of  New  Year  greetings  in  all  homas  ef  some 
cities. 

11.  Appointment  of  district  nurses. 

12.  Institution  of  a  religious  magazine  adapted  to  localized  use. 


FEDERATION    OF    CHURCHES.  331 

13.  Institution  of  reading  rooms  to  act  as  saloon  substitutes,  and 
of  Sick  and  Dividend  funds  in  opposition  to  Public  House  funds. 

14.  Rescue  of  children  from  the  streets. 

15.  Stoppage  of  the  sale  of  intoxicants  at  such  festivals  as  the 
Eisteddfod,  Cardiff. 

16.  Arrangements  for  the  jSTational  Simultaneous  Mission,  cover- 
ing all  England. 

17.  Institution  of  a  Nonconformist  parish  system.  "Some 
churches  visit  every  house  in  their  parishes  once  every  month,  and 
have  always  special  evangelistic  services  on  hand.  By  such  means 
the  crowd  of  people  outside  the  churches  are  touched  as  they  are  not 
touched  even  by  united  missions."  For  the  extension  of  this  parish 
system,  Mr.  George  Cadbury  offers  $25  to  every  local  council  for  the 
preparation  of  a  map  showing  the  cooperative  districts  adopted  by  it. 

The  above  list  of  results  certainly  proves  the  vigor  of  the  English 
Federation  Movement,  but  shows  at  the  same  time  how  political  it 
is,  to  American  eyes.  Dr.  MacKennal,  in  summarizing  his  observa- 
tions of  the  work  in  all  parts  of  England,  says :  "In  some  places  I 
heard  mostly  of  missions,  in  others  of  philanthropic  work.  The 
influencing  of  town  councils,  magisterial  benches,  and  police  activity 
for  the  good  of  the  community,  has  been  the  particular  direction 
taken  by  others.  I  regard  this  local  independence  as  another  healthy 
sign  of  the  hold  our  work  has  taken  on  our  churches." 

MISCELLANEOUS  NOTES. 

The  National  Council  issues  hymnals,  tracts,  and  an  official  paper 
called  "The  Free  Church  Chronicle,"  and  has  lantern  lectures  on 
Free  Church  facts  and  theory  for  free  use.  It  has  in  its  service  at 
least  three  evangelists,  Mr.  W.  R.  Lane,  Gipsy  Smith,  and  Rev.  J. 
Tolefree  Parr,  whose  character  and  capacity  are  abundantly  vouched 
for,  and  who  have  brought  thousands  into  fellowship  with  Christ, 
including  many  adherents  of  the  State  Church.  "We  have  come  to- 
gether spiritually,"  says  one  of  the  leaders,  "and  we  are  prepared  to 
unite  for  anything  which  means  the  frustration  of  the  devil  and  the 
enthronement  of  Christ."  But  the  English  Federation  movement, 
though  covering  the  whole  country,  is  not,  and  cannot  be,  a  union  of 
all  the  forces  whose  aim  is  "the  frustration  of  the  devil  and  the  en- 
thronement of  Christ,"  because  it  excludes  the  auxiliary  forces  with- 
in the  State  Church,  and  the  time  must  come  when  all  of  England's 
Christian  forces  will  be  united. 


332  CHRISTENDOM. 


SOUTH    AFRICA. 


The  council  is  by  no  means  at  one  with  itself  on  the  question  of  the 
Boer  war,  but,  in  interest  in  arbitration,  it  has  spoken  more  pro- 
nouncedly than  the  State  Church,  and  this,  perhaps,  is  what  one 
would  expect  under  the  circumstances. 

It  is  interesting  to  note,  in  the  literature  of  the  English  Federa- 
tion movement,  how  frequently  Robert  Browning  is  quoted.  One  of 
the  leaders,  indeed,  calls  him  "The  Poet  of  Nonconformity." 

In  South  Africa  there  are  federations  which  in  some  instances  in- 
clude the  Episcopalians.  This  is  true  in  Durban,  where  the  Church 
of  England  works  with  the  Wesleyans,  Baptists,  Congregationalists, 
Scandinavian  Lutherans,  Salvation  Army  and  South  African  Mis- 
sion. There  is  no  union  of  church  and  state  in  Durban.  This  fed- 
eration has  fought  the  Sunday  theatre,  gambling,  and  the  impurity  of 
the  town.  There  are  federations  also  in  Capetown,  Maritzburg, 
Kimberley,  Johannesburg,  and  Port  Elizabeth,  but  in  all  of  these, 
owing  to  the  union  of  church  and  state,  the  circle  of  denominational 
inclusion  is  smaller. 

JAMAICA  AND  SCOTLAND. 

In  Jamaica,  as  in  England,  action  has  been  taken  against  the 
denominational  schools,  and  iLe  churches  have  united  to  enforce 
temperance  law  and  to  benefit  the  children. 

There  is  at  least  one  federation  in  Scotland  in  a  town  where  the 
Established  Church  has  no  branch.  It  has  conducted  a  special  mis- 
sion, prayer  meeting,  and  house-to-house  visitation. 

DENOMINATIONAL    INCLUSION. 

Nowhere  in  the  Old  World  is  the  circle  of  denominational  inclu- 
sion as  wide  as  in  America,  and  this  for  two  reasons : 

1.  Because  in  America  all  churches  stand  on  an  equal  footing 
under  the  state. 

2.  Because  in  America,  as  in  Durban,  South  Africa,  the  denomi- 
nations have  received  large  accessions  from  immigration. 

A  third  reason  might  be  added,  namely,  that  the  freedom  of  church 
and  state  in  America  has  tended  to  an  inventive  increase  of  denomi- 
national division.  There  are  many  denominations,  born  in  America, 
which  have  no  representation  in  England,  while,  so  far  as  is  known, 


FEDERATION    OF    CHURCHES.  333 

there  is  no  denomination  in  England  which  is  not  represented  in 
America. 

The  report  on  the  English  Council  for  1901  says:  "Very  soon 
we  shall  have  to  report  that  no  more  councils  are  being  formed,  for 
the  simple  reason  that  in  a  comparatively  short  space  of  time  the 
whole  of  England  and  Wales  will  be  covered."  When  this  stage  is 
reached  the  Old  World  Federation  movement  will  doubtless  have  a 
most  powerful  influence  upon  the  political  question  of  the  future  re- 
lations of  church  and  state  in  Great  Britain. 


INTOLERANCE. 

An  American  cannot  read  an  incident  recorded  in  the  report  of 
1901  without  sympathizing  with  the  Englishmen  who  smart  under 
the  wrongs  inflicted  by  the  State  Church,  when  its  ministers  or 
sympathizers  depart  from  the  principle  of  the  Reformation,  the  right 
of  liberty  of  thought.  Lord  Hastings  last  Michaelmas  sent  notice 
to  Mr.  Burrell  Hammond,  a  farmer,  to  quit  the  place,  and  his  land- 
lord wrote  him :  "The  reason  you  have  notice  to  quit  your  farm  is 
that  I  am  anxious  to  have  a  tenant  who  would  act  on  more  friendly 
terms  with  his  landlord,  and  also  one  not  so  hostile  to  the  clergy  and 
everything  connected  with  the  Church  of  England." 

Every  landlord  in  America,  of  course,  has  the  right,  and  probably 
the  habit,  of  securing  tenants  with  whom  friendly  relationship  can  be 
cultivated,  but  there  are  few  landlords,  if  any,  in  America,  who 
would  mention  the  fact,  even  if  feeling  it,  that  their  tenants  are  un- 
pleasant on  account  of  their  religious  opinions.  The  instance  re- 
veals the  tension  of  the  state  of  feeling  in  England, 

London's  federation. 

The  Metropolitan  Federation,  which  concerns  itself  with  the  city 
of  London,  includes  sixty  separate  councils,  and  Dr.  Joseph  Parker, 
of  the  City  Temple,  is  the  president  of  the  Federation.  Last  winter 
this  Federation  engaged  in  two  great  enterprises,  one  of  which  is 
unnecessary  in  America,  while  the  other  is  a  perpetual  need  of  Amer- 
ica as  well  as  of  all  Christian  lands. 

The  former  was  the  participation  of  the  London  Federation  in 
the  School  Board  election,  when  the  Federation  sided  with  the  Pro- 
gressives as  against  the  Moderates.     The  Moderates  believe  in  thp 


334  CHEISTENDOM. 

retention  of  catechetical  instruction  in  the  public  school  system, 
while  the  Progressives  stand  for  its  elimination.  The  last  election 
"resulted  in  the  return  of  the  Progressive  Unsectarians  by  a  small 
majority."  The  Metropolitan  Federation  also  concerned  itself  with 
the  Borough  Council  elections,  pointing  out  that  "the  new  munici- 
pal arrangements  provided  a  great  opportunity,  and  laid  a  heavy 
burden  of  responsibility  upon  all  Christian  citizens." 

SIMULTANEOUS  MISSION. 

The  other  great  concern  of  the  Metropolitan  Federation  was  the 
Simultaneous  Mission,  whose  opening  was  so  shadowed,  and  yet 
sanctified,  by  the  death  of  the  Queen. 

For  London,  as  for  all  other  parts  of  Great  Britain,  preparations 
had  been  made  to  make  the  Simultaneous  Mission  as  successful  as 
diligent  and  cooperative  human  efEort  could  render  it.  All-day  con- 
ferences, at  which  the  mission  was  the  sole  subject  discussed,  were 
held  throughout  all  the  country.  One  hundred  thousand  copies  of  a 
pamphlet  relative  to  the  mission,  by  the  Eev.  J.  Tolefree  Parr,  were 
circulated  broadcast.  The  Eev.  F.  B.  Meyer  wrote  two  special  book- 
lets, entitled  "To  Missioners,"  and  "The  Direction  of  Inquirers," 
which  proved  of  great  practical  service;  and  a  pamplilet  entitled 
"Preparing  the  Way"  was  also  published.  Material  on  house-to- 
house  visitation,  inquirers'  cards,  workers'  cards,  etc.,  etc.,  were  pub- 
lished by  the  million  pages,  and  Eev.  G.  Campbell  Morgan  wrote  for 
converts  a  book  of  advice  entitled  "All  Things  New." 

The  first  great  public  meeting  in  London  was  presided  over  by 
Lord  Kinnaird,  an  evangelical  layman  of  the  Church  of  England, 
and  an  address  was  made  by  a  clergyman  of  the  Established  Church. 

This  clearly  showed  the  spiritual  sympathy  with  a  spiritual  move- 
ment of  many  of  the  Christian  people  of  Great  Britain  whom  the 
constitution  of  the  Council  of  the  Evangelical  Free  Churches  ex- 
cludes, and  proved  that  there  is  no  barrier  to  unity  in  Christ  which 
does  not  break  down  under  the  unifying  Spirit  of  God.  Hugh  Price 
Hughes  once  claimed  for  the  Council  of  the  Evangelical  Free 
Churches  that  it  included  the  "Scriptural  Catholics."  "We  are  not 
one  in  the  Pope,"  he  said,  "we  are  not  one  in  the  Crown ;  but  we  are 
one  in  Christ.  The  Eoman  Catholic  stands  for  the  supremacy  of 
the  Pope,  the  Anglican  Catbolic  for  the  supremacy  of  the  Crown,  and 
the  Scriptural  Catholic  for  the  supremacy  of  the  Christ." 


FEDERATION    OF    CHUECHES.  335 

But  the  opening  and  the  history  of  the  Simultaneous  Mission  in 
London,  and  throughout  the  land,  proved  that  all  the  Scriptural 
Catholics  are  not  Free  Churchmen. 

The  Mission  proper  opened  with  a  service  at  the  Guildhall  on  Jan- 
uary 28,  1901.  Never  before  had  a  Nonconformist  service  been 
held  there,  but  the  Lord  Mayor  and  sheriffs  attended  "in  state,"  and 
the  famous,  ancient  building  was  crowded  with  a  congregation  rep- 
resenting all  classes  of  society  and  all  schools  of  religion. 

Midday  services  were  conducted  for  nearly  a  fortnight  by  the 
Eev.  John  McNeill  in  the  City  Temple,  and  by  Dr.  Clifford  and 
Mr.  Meyer  at  Bishopsgate  Chapel  and  Exeter  Hall,  while  Gipsy 
Smith  preached  at  the  Metropolitan  Tabernacle. 

In  all  of  these  places  rich  results  were  reaped,  though  throughout 
the  whole  country  there  was  some  disappointment  that  the  results 
were  not  larger.  It  cannot  be  doubted,  however,  that  this  spiritual 
opening  of  the  twentieth  century  history  of  London,  and  of  the  land, 
will  bless  the  city  and  the  nation  through  many  years  to  come. 

Mr.  Meyer  calculates  that,  in  all,  the  missioners,  each  day  of  the 
mission,  reached  200,000  people,  and  believes  that  the  impression 
was  greatly  intensified  by  the  sorrow  over  the  Queen's  death,  which 
had  smitten  the  nation.  It  is  altogether  likely  that  the  movement 
for  a  similar  mission  in  America  will  receive  a  special  blessing, 
through  the  exhibition,  in  President  McKinley's  closing  hours,  of  the 
calm  and  beauty  and  dignity  of  a  Christian  death.  It  is  an  augury 
for  an  even  greater  blessing  in  America  that  the  Episcopalian 
churches  are  represented  both  in  American  federations  and  in  the 
National  Gospel  Campaign  Committee. 

One  feature  of  this  great  movement  was  the  effort  made  for  special 
classes,  such  as  noonday  meetings  for  laborers,  services  for  police- 
men, etc.,  etc.  There  were  efforts  also  to  reach  the  Jews  of  the 
metropolis. 

MISSION  RESULTS. 

One  result  of  the  mission,  which  is  given  especial  mention  in  the 
official  account,  is  its  influence  upon  the  pulpit  style  of  many  minis- 
ters. It  is  claimed  that  all  traces  of  scholasticism  disappeared,  and 
that,  as  missioners,  they  were  straightforward  and  simple,  while  as 
ordinary  preachers  they  had  been  liable  to  be  diffuse  and  complex. 
Mr.  Meyer,  however,  concedes  that  the  great  outlying  masses  were 
"not  largely  influenced  or  induced  to  come  to  the  meetings."     "They 


336  CHRISTENDOM. 

are  not  to  be  convinced  of  our  earnestness  or  desire  to  have  them  by 
one  spasmodic  effort.  We  must  persevere  with  this  kind  of  work." 
There  is  indeed  a  decided  evidence  of  saving  common  sense  in  the 
comments,  upon  the  success  of  the  mission,  which  emanate  from  its 
leaders;  and  Mr.  Meyer  concludes  that  the  next  great  Free  Church 
Mission,  "if  we  live  to  see  it,  must  occupy  the  local  public  buildings, 
and,  where  possible,  the  places  of  amusement  in  which  the  people  are 
accustomed  to  congregate/' 

MISSION    ELSEWHERE. 

Interesting  special  reports  upon  the  Mission  from  Birmingham, 
Blackburn,  Bradford,  Brighton,  Bristol,  Cambridge,  Cardiff,  Hali- 
fax, Hull,  Ipswich,  King's  Lynn,  Leeds,  Leicester,  Liverpool,  Man- 
chester, Newcastle,  Plymouth,  Portsmouth,  Sheffield,  Swansea  and 
York  are  contained  in  the  report  of  the  National  Council  which  met 
at  Cardiff  in  1901. 

In  many  of  these  centres,  as  in  London,  the  Anglican  clergy  at- 
tended the  mission,  and  at  Portsmouth  an  Anglican  clergyman  as- 
sisted the  Eev.  G.  Campbell  Morgan  at  his  meetings  in  the  Town 
Hall. 

THE  CO-OPERATIVE  PARISH  IDEA. 

The  general  conclusion  upon  the  utility  of  the  work  emphasizes  the 
fact  that  permanent  effects  can  be  accomplished  only  by  the  co- 
operative districting  of  the  country.  Mr.  Cadbury,  a  member  of  the 
Society  of  Friends,  says:  "No  great  permanent  effects  will  be 
produced  on  the  country,  except  by  each  church  taking  its  parish 
and  working  it  vigorously.  The  country  has  suffered  because 
Christian  men  and  women  have  not  been  at  work.  The  churches 
have  suffered  because  work  has  not  been  found  for  them  to  do,  and, 
like  a  limb  unused,  they  have  become  helpless.  That  individual 
and  that  church  only  wiU  be  filled  with  all  peace  and  joy  in  be- 
lieving which  unselfishly  devotes  itself  to  the  good  of  others."  Dr. 
Horton  makes  a  comment  which  is  quite  startling,  but  yet  perhaps 
sadly  true.  He  says :  "To  reach  the  masses  of  the  outsiders,  the 
services  should  be  held  in  neutral  buildings.  It  is  not  the  Chris- 
tian truth  or  the  Christian  Church  that  repels  the  people,  but  the 
Christian  building,  and  the  conventionalities  which  have  gathered 
about  it."  Dr.  MacKennal  says:  "The  churches  have  not  caught 
and  represented   the   ethical   idea   of  the   Lord.      By   discussing 


JOHN   B.   GOUGH. 


FEDERATION    OF    CHURCHES.  337 

whether  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  was  a  possible  law  on  earth,  in- 
stead of  learning  from  it  how  to  live,  we  have  awakened  the  sus- 
picion that  our  own  belief  in  Christ  is  not  thorough.  I  have  not 
been  surprised  that,  of  the  large  congregations  which  the  Mission 
has  gathered,  only  a  small  percentage  of  'outsiders'  has  been  any- 
where observed.  If  the  desire  becomes  a  purpose  to  follow  Christ 
everywhere,  to  have  no  other  rule  than  His,  for  personal,  social  and 
material  life,  there  will  be  such  a  revival  as  England  has  never 
known." 

FEDERATION   EXTENSION. 

The  IJOl  report  of  the  council  states  that  federation  is  being  dis- 
cussed in  the  churches  of  Scotland,  and  that  leading  representatives 
of  the  Scottish  Episcopalian  Church,  the  Established  Church  of 
Scotland,  and  the  United  Free  Church  of  Scotland,  have  issued  a  call 
to  prayer  for  visible  unity.  In  the  face,  however,  of  this  inclusive 
movement,  the  extension  of  the  federation  idea,  on  the  part  of  the 
Council  of  the  Evangelical  Free  Churches,  continues  to  encourage 
the  exclusion  of  the  Episcopalian  churches.  In  Sydney,  New  South 
Wales,  for  instance,  the  Rev.  J.  B.  Meharry,  B.A.,  is  quoted  as  urg- 
ing upon  the  General  Assembly  of  New  South  Wales  "the  possibility, 
if  only  from  an  economic  point  of  view,  of  all  non-Episcopalian 
churches  making  a  great  federation."  The  Council  of  Churches  in 
Victoria  includes  only  the  Presbyterians,  Wesleyans,  Congregation- 
alists.  Baptists,  Lutherans,  Primitive  Methodists,  United  Methodists, 
and  Bible  Christians.  It  has  been  in  existence  for  seven  or  eight 
years,  and  concerns  itself  mainly  with  the  "overlapping"  question. 

Four  Evangelical  Councils  have  been  formed  in  New  Zealand,  at 
Dunedin,  Christschurch,  Wellington  and  Auckland.  The  Free 
churches  of  Berlin  have  formed  a  council  which  will  ultimately,  per- 
haps, include  all  the  Free  churches  of  the  German  Empire,  and  serve 
as  "a  united  testimony  or  action  toward  the  very  powerful,  almost 
Imperial  Lutheran  State  Church." 

NEW  WORLD  FEDERATION. 

The  Federation  movement  in  the  New  World  is  entirely  indepen- 
dent, in  origin,  methods  and  purposes,  of  the  Federation  movement 
in  the  Old.  It  owes  mo-e  to  the  Evangelical  Alliance  of  the  United 
States  than  to  any  other  root  influence. 


3^  CHEISTENDOM. 

There  was  a  period  in  the  history  of  the  Evangelical  Alliance  of 
the  United  States  when  it  itself  promised  to  be  a  complete  solvent  of 
the  problems  of  Christian  cooperation  in  the  New  World.  Not  con- 
tent, however,  with  increasing  interest  in  the  unif3dng  of  religious 
work,  some  individuals  connected  with  the  Alliance,  in  1873,  took  a 
step,  in  connection  with  the  World  Congress  of  the  Evangelical 
Alliance,  held  in  New  York  in  that  year,  in  the  direction  of  unity  in 
worship — a  matter  which  to  federationists  is  not  of  immediate  con- 
cern. The  existing  canons  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  of 
that  time  prevented  a  clergyman  from  celebrating  the  Holy  Com- 
munion on  terms  of  parity  with  the  clergy  of  other  churches,  just 
as  the  customs  of  the  Baptist  Church  of  that  period  prohibited  a 
clergyman  of  that  communion  from  inviting  all  lovers  of  the  Lord, 
without  regard  to  the  method  of  their  original  baptism,  to  join  in 
celebrating  the  Lord's  Supper. 

As  a  result,  therefore,  of  the  criticism  of  the  participation  of  an 
Episcopal  clergyman  in  the  sacramental  service  which  was  held  in 
connection  with  the  meeting  of  the  Evangelical  Alliance,  the  Ee- 
formed  Episcopal  body  in  the  United  States  was  created  by  de- 
cedents from  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  and  the  attitude  of 
the  Episcopalian  body  toward  the  Evangelical  Alliance  was  there- 
after inevitably  less  cordial.  This  effect  would  have  been  averted 
but  for  an  unfortunate  misunderstanding  which  attributed  to  the 
Evangelical  Alliance  an  action  which  was  taken  by  a  few  individuals 
on  their  own  responsibility. 

The  effect  remained,  however,  and  in  many  quarters  of  the  United 
States  the  federative  efforts  of  the  Evangelical  Alliance  thereafter 
were  quite  perceptibly  affected.  It  was  not  until  the  Rev.  Josiah 
Strong,  the  distinguished  author  of  "Our  Country,"  became,  through 
the  insight  and  liberality  of  Mr.  William  E.  Dodge,  president  of  the 
Evangelical  Alliance,  its  field  secretary,  that  the  Alliance  began 
again  to  receive  expressions  and  accessions  of  Episcopalian  sympa- 
thy. Dr.  Strong's  portrayal  of  the  problems  of  America  in  that 
book  was  so  forcible  as  to  arouse  a  very  widespread  interest  in  co- 
operation. 

A  NATIONAL  CHURCH. 

Within  the  Episcopalian  Church  itself  the  Rev.  Dr.  William  R. 
Huntington  has  been  pleading  for  years  for  a  unified  American 
Church,  and  the  "Church  Idea"  for  which  he  stands  is  statesmanlike 


FEDERATION    OF    CHURCHES.  339 

fcud  tolerant.  While  the  Episcopalian  communion,  as  a  whole,  has 
not  yet  adopted  it,  the  influence  of  Dr.  Huntington  is  quite  percep- 
tible to  all  federation  workers.  His  plan  virtually  concedes  the  reg- 
ularity of  non-Episcopalian  orders,  and  advocates  a  National  Church, 
under  Episcopalian  oversight,  not  because  the  church  descends  di- 
rectly from  the  Apostles,  but  because  a  history  of  helpfulness,  on  the 
part  of  the  churches  in  America,  can  best  be  made,  he  believes,  in  the 
future,  under  the  executive  oversight  of  bishops. 

The  need  of  increased  efficiency  in  the  present  religious  work  of 
America  is  the  foundation  of  Dr.  Huntington's  interest  in  his  pro- 
posal; and,  consciously  or  unconsciously,  his  activities  have  rein- 
forced the  literature  and  work  of  the  Evangelical  Alliance  in  con- 
vincing American  Christians  of  the  necessities  and  opportunities  of 
federation  in  the  United  States. 


POLITICAL  FEDERATION. 

The  fact  has  been  frequently  pointed  out,  and  it  is  a  very  impor- 
tant one,  that  the  political  framework  of  the  United  States  is  a 
parallel  to  a  possible  framework  for  the  federation  of  its  churches, 
and  even  of  its  communions.  Just  as  the  states  are  federated  with- 
out the  surrender  of  their  entire  autonomy,  the  churches  and  com- 
munions could  be  federated,  for  the  achievement  of  pui poses  common 
to  all,  without  the  surrender  of  their  individual  autonomy. 

Dr.  Strong's  book,  ''Our  Country,"  was  followed,  after  he  had  as- 
sumed the  secretaryship  of  the  Evangelical  Alliance,  by  the  "New 
Era,"  a  most  masterly  proof  of  the  need  of  cooperation  to  solve  the 
problems  which  intimately  concern  the  life  of  American  churches, 
especially  in  cities.  The  book,  moreover,  concludes  with  a  descrip- 
tion of  the  method  favored,  and  carried  into  operation  in  some  lo- 
calities, by  the  Evangelical  Alliance. 

It  is  hard  to  see  why  this  book  failed  to  produce  a  permanent 
effect  upon  New  York  City,  in  which  the  Evangelical  Alliance  had 
its  headquarters.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  however,  the  Chickering  Hall 
Conference,  in  the  interest' of  cooperation  in  New  York  City,  which 
was  held  in  1888,  failed  to  produce  a  permanent  federation  of  the 
church  forces  of  New  York.  Two  years  before  the  English  federa- 
tion movement  began,  however,  the  Evangelical  Alliance  had  already 
called  attention  to  the  need  of  cooperation  in  meeting  the  religious 
and  social  needs  of  the  New  World's  metropolis.     Elsewhere  in  the 


340  CHRISTENDOM. 

United  States  the  efforts  of  the  Evangelical  Alliance  were  more  suc- 
cessful. In  Boston  there  is  an  organization  which  is  twenty-six 
years  old,  having  been  called  into  being  shortly  after  the  World's 
Congress  of  the  Evangelical  Alliance  in  1873.  The  effect  of  the 
misunderstanding,  already  alluded  to,  however,  has  restricted  the 
membership  of  the  Boston  Alliance,  and  it  was  at  best  only  a  federa- 
tion of  clergymen,  little  stronger  than  an  English  Ministers'  Fra- 
ternal, until  1900,  when  its  constitution  was  revised  to  provide  for 
the  direct  representation  of  the  churches  by  laymen,  in  addition  to 
clergymen.  This  was  the  result  of  the  experience  of  the  New  York 
Federation,  whose  methods  are  the  most  fully  developed  of  all  federa- 
tions in  the  New  World,  and  which  had  been  organized  in  1895. 

AMERICA''s   PROBLEM. 

New  World  federation  thus  owes  nothing  whatever  to  the  Old 
World  movement.  Its  methods  are  entirely  its  own ;  and  they  are  an 
expression  of  the  fact  that  the  problems  of  federation  in  America 
are  different  from  those  of  any  other  quarter  of  the  world,  and  that 
the  federative  needs  of  America,  for  the  immediate  future,  at  least, 
will  be  best  met  by  the  formation  of  federations  in  what  the  French 
call  les  grandes  villes,  or  cities  of  100,000  or  over. 

URBAN   POPULATION. 

There  are  several  states  of  the  American  Union,  notably  in  the 
North  Atlantic  section,  whose  percentage  of  urban  population  is 
higher  than  the  percentage  of  urban  population  in  England.  This 
fact  is  most  astonishing,  but  is  nevertheless  true.  New  York  State 
alone  has  an  area  nearly  equal  to  the  whole  of  England,  and  its 
population  is  77. G  per  cent,  urban,  if  all  incorporated  places  be  in- 
cluded in  the  tabulation,  while  if  places  of  4,000  and  over  are 
counted,  it  is  71.2  per  cent,  urban. 

In  1891,  England,  including  London,  was  but  70.4  per  cent,  urban, 
and  included  in  the  classification  "urban''  were  all  the  sanitary  dis- 
tricts of  over  3,000  persons.  But  in  1900  Massachusetts  was  76  per 
cent,  urban,  including  in  the  classification  only  places  of  8,000  per- 
sons and  over,  while  Rhode  Island  was  81.2  per  cent. ;  New  York 
68.5  per  cent,  on  the  same  basis;  New  Jersey,  61.2  per  cent.;  and 
Connecticut  53.2  per  cent.     The  latest  statistics  from  England  show 


FEDERATION    OF    CHURCHES.  341 

that  England  of  to-day,  including  the  whole  of  London,  is  but  67.4' 
per  cent,  urban,  including  only  cities  of  10,000  or  over. 

There  are  in  America  thirty-eight  cities  of  100,000  or  over,  with 
an  aggregate  population  of  12,208,347  persons,  or  18.5  per  cent,  of 
the  entire  population  of  the  United  States,  including  Alaska  and  the 
remoter  possessions  of  the  United  States  in  the  Far  East.  The  cities 
of  100,000  and  over  in  New  York  State  comprise  55.2  per  cent,  of 
the  entire  population  of  the  State,  but  in  England,  the  cities  of 
100,000  and  over,  in  1901,  comprised  only  35.3  per  cent,  of  the  en- 
tire population  of  England. 

Astonishing  as  the  fact  is,  therefore,  the  fact  remains,  neverthe- 
less, that  the  more  populous  regions  of  the  New  World  are  more 
largely  urban  than  England.  There  were  in  England,  in  1896,  only 
fourteen  cities  of  200,000  or  over,  while  in  the  United  States  there 
are  nineteen  such  cities. 

ALIEN    POPULATION. 

The  foreign-born  in  the  United  States  in  1900  numbered  10,- 
460,085  persons,  or  13.7  per  cent,  of  the  entire  population  of  the 
country.  The  population  of  England  and  Wales,  in  June,  1900,  was 
officially  estimated  at  32,091,907  persons.  The  foreign-born  in  the 
United  States  are  therefore  the  equivalent  of  almost  one-third  of  the 
entire  population  of  England  and  Wales. 

The  city  of  London,  in  1901,  is  officially  stated  to  be  less  than  10 
per  cent,  foreign-born,  but  there  are  six  American  cities  whose  popu- 
lation is  over  one-third  foreign-born.  Fall  River,  Mass.,  has  the 
largest  percentage,  viz.,  47.7  per  cent.,  and  New  York  City  is  next 
with  37  per  cent.  The  Borough  of  Manhattan,  which  comprises 
over  half  of  the  population  of  New  York,  is  47.2  per  cent,  foreign- 
born,  while  sixteen  of  its  thirty-four  Assembly  Districts  are  above 
40  per  cent,  foreign,  six  above  50  per  cent.,  and  one  ne'arly  70  per 
cent.  The  foreign-born  in  New  York  City  exceeded,  in  1900,  the  en- 
tire population  of  Liverpool  and  Manchester,  and  was  greater 
than  the  entire  foreign  population  of  Chicago,  Philadelphia. 
St.  Louis,  Boston  and  Baltimore  combined.  In  the  year 
1896,  17,108  aliens  arrived  in  the  port  of  London,  and  only  40,036 
in  all  the  ports  of  the  United  Kingdom.  In  the  same  year  343,267 
aliens  arrived  in  the  United  States,  and  72  per  cent,  of  them  were 
destined  for  New  York  State,  for  Massachusetts,  Pennsylvania  and 
Illinois;  in  other  words,  for  the  states  having  the  largest  cities. 


342  CHRISTENDOM. 

53.7  per  cent,  of  the  foreign-bom  living  in  cities  of  100,000  or  over 
in  America  live  in  cities  of  1,000,000  or  over,  and  31.7  per  cent,  of 
the  population  living  in  cities  of  100,000  or  over  live  in  New  York 
City,  leaving  only  22  per  cent,  to  Philadelphia  and  Chicago  com- 
bined. 

When  the  Federation  of  New  York  City,  therefore,  began  its  work 
in  1895,  it  was  evident  that  the  plan  to  be  adopted  should  definitely 
address  itself  not  only  to  the  problems  arising  from  New  York's  di- 
versity of  religious  communions,  but  to  the  problems  arising  from  the 
diversity  of  its  nationalities,  and  this,  from  the  first,  has  character- 
ized the'  work  of  the  Federation  of  Churches  and  Christian  organiza- 
tions in  New  York  City. 

CONGESTION. 

There  is  another  feature  of  the  situation  in  New  York  which  com- 
pels, in  the  New  World,  federation  methods  different  from  those 
adopted  in  London. 

In  London,  in  1901,  there  was  an  average  of  only  7.8  persons  to  a 
house,  but  in  Manhattan,  in  1900,  there  was  an  average  of  33.2  per- 
sons to  a  house.  In  1890,  only  6.3  per  cent,  of  the  families  of  Man- 
hattan owned  their  own  dwellings.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  housing 
problem  of  l^evf  York  City  is  a  greater  problem  than  the  housing  of 
London,  and  the  plan  which  the  New  York  Federation  has  adopted 
is  as  minutely  adapted  to  the  frequent  migration  of  the  people  from 
tenement  to  tenement  and  from  apartment  to  apartment  as  to  the 
problems  arising  from  the  diversity  of  religious  communions  and 
nationalities. 

CHURCH   EXTENSION. 

There  is  yet  another  fact  which  is  of  great  importance  in  New 
York,  namely,  that  the  number  of  Protestant  churches,  relatively  to 
population,  has  not  been  keeping  pace  with  population.  There  is 
no  district  of  New  York  which,  in  proportion  to  population,  has  as 
many  churches  as  has  London,  if  the  Established  Church  and  Free 
churches  are  added,  and  no  New  Yorker,  of  course,  would  look  at  the 
religious  problems  of  London  simply  through  Free  Church  eyes. 

NEAV   YOKK^S  FEDERATION. 

Hence  the  work  in  the  New  World's  largest  city  has  a  scale  and 
method  which  make  it  inclusive  of  anything  and  everything  that 


FEDERATION    OF    CHURCHES.  343 

eoTild  be  attempted  in  any  American  city  of  100,000  and  over,  and 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  its  influence  has  already  been  apparent  by  the 
formation  of  a  National  Federation  of  Churches  and  Christian 
Workers,  which  is  endeavoring  to  reproduce  the  New  York  Federa- 
tion in  other  American  cities,  as  well  as  to  introduce  in  rural  com- 
munities the  work  of  the  Interdenominational  Commission  of  Maine. 

The  membership  of  the  New  York  Federation  includes  represen- 
tatives of  its  churches  and  Christian  organizations,  as  well  as  a  con- 
siderable number  of  individuals  who  give  to  its  support  $50  or  more 
annually. 

It  is  controlled  by  a  board  of  thirty  directors,  who  represent  the 
five  boroughs  of  New  York  City,  and  who  belong  to  the  Baptist,  Con- 
gregational, Lutheran,  Methodist,  Presbyterian,  Protestant  Episco- 
palian and  Reformed  Dutch  communions.  On  its  committees  and  in 
some  of  its  sub-federations  there  are  also  representatives  of  the 
Friends,  Moravians,  Reformed  Presbyterians,  Unitarians,  Welsh 
Calvinistic  Methodists,  Disciples,  Primitive  Methodists,  the  Evan- 
gelical Association  of  North  America,  United  Presbyterians,  Re- 
formed Germans  and  the  Free  Baptists.  The  Hebrews  of  New  York 
are  not  directly  represented  in  the  Board,  but  are  committed  to  co- 
operate with  the  Federation  in  philanthropic  matters,  and  friendly 
relationships  are  cultivated  with  them,  by  instituting  inquiries  which 
will  be  of  advantage  to  such  movements  as  the  Baron  de  Hirsch 
Fund. 

The  Roman  Catholics  of  the  city  also  cooperate  with  it  along  phil- 
anthropic lines,  but  in  the  main  concern  of  the  New  York  Federa- 
tion, namely,  the  development  of  a  cooperative  Protestant  parish 
system,  the  Hebrews  and  Catholics  will  not,  of  course,  cooperate. 

CREEDS  IN   NEVr   YORK. 

statement  was  above  made  of  the  difference  between  English  and 
American  cities  in  respect  of  their  nationality.  It  should  be  added 
that  these  divergences  are  accompanied  by  startling  divergences  in 
creedal  conditions.  In  the  last  report  of  the  Council  of  Evangelical 
Free  Churches  of  Great  Britain  it  was  stated  that,  in  13,000  families 
visited  in  South  Manchester,  only  880  were  Roman  Catholics,  or  6.8 
per  cent.,  but  there  are  many  districts  of  New  York  which  are  over 
60  per  cent.  Roman  Catholic.  If  the  Protestantism  of  New  York 
concentrated  its  attention  upon  proselytizing  its  Hebrews  and  Catho- 


344  CHRISTENDOM. 

lies,  rather  than  upon  the  discovery  and  recovery  of  the  Protestants 
who  are  lapsing  from  church  attendance  and  interest,  it  would  have 
a  task  truly  colossal,  and  one  which  could  never  be  discharged  by  any 
mere  surface  evangelism. 

The  recorded  marriages  in  the  city  of  London,  for  the  year  1897, 
include  only  1,391  marriages  at  which  a  Roman  Catholic  priest 
officiated,  885  at  which  a  Rabbi  officiated,  while  there  were  30,094 
marriages  by  clergymen  of  the  Established  Church,  1,777  by  other 
Protestant  religious  bodies,  and  5,725  civil  marriages.  The  Roman 
Catholic  and  the  Hebrew  marriages  combined  are  thus  less  than 
2,300,  while  distinctively  Protestant  marriages  are  nearly  32,000. 
New  York  City  possesses  the  facts  for  a  similar  tabulation,  but  such 
a  tabulation  has  never  been  made.  It  is  altogether  likely,  however, 
that  the  Roman  Catholic  and  Hebrew  marriages  in  New  York  are 
proportionately  ten  times  as  numerous  as  in  London.  There  are  said 
to  be  over  400,000  Hebrews  in  New  York.  There  are  nearly  200 
synagogues. 

The  New  York  Federation  is  making  a  special  study  of  the  inter- 
marriages among  Protestants,  Catholics  and  Hebrews,  and  of  the 
changes  of  the  children's  creed  from  one  to  the  other,  and  it  is  be- 
lieved that  the  facts  will  prove  that  the  changes  from  the  Roman 
Catholic  and  Hebrew  faiths  are  most  numerous  and  genuine  where 
the  Protestant  churches  are  directly  ministering  to  the  everyday  life 
of  the  people,  in  addition  to  their  announcement,  whether  overt  or 
covert,  of  their  conceptions  of  religious  truth. 


SOCIOLOGICAL  BUREAU. 

The  Constitution  of  the  United  States  forbids  the  establishment 
or  prohibition  of  any  form  of  religious  belief  among  the  people,  and 
this,  the  First  Amendment  to  the  Constitution,  is  interpreted  as  a 
prohibition  upon  any  inquiry,  on  the  part  of  the  nation,  into  the 
faiths  of  the  people.  Religious  statistics  were,  indeed,  gathered  and 
published  in  connection  with  the  census  of  1890,  but  these  facts  were 
taken  from  the  official  publications  of  the  various  religious  bodies  of 
the  country,  or  from  replies  to  inquiries  directed  to  such  officials  in 
their  official  capacity.  No  municipality  of  the  United  States  has 
ever  made,  or  ever  can  make,  a  religious  inquiry  among  its  popula- 
tion. 

The  New  York  Federation  is,  therefore,  first  of  all,  a  sociological 


FEDERATION    OF    CHURCHES.  34S 

bureau,  through  which  its  churches  and  Christian  organizations  arc 
put  into  possession  of  facts  concerning  localities,  nationalities  and 
religious  communions  which  can  be  obtained  in  no  other  way,  and 
which  are  especially  important  for  the  advancement  of  religion  in 
New  York,  owing  to  the  congestion  of  the  city  and  the  diversity  of 
its  nationalities  and  creeds.  The  work  of  this  bureau  has  so  grown 
in  appreciation  and  experience  since  1895  that  the  Board  of  Direc- 
tors has  authorized  an  appeal  for  an  endowment  of  $500,000  for  the 
conduct  of  a  similar  and  enlarged  work  throughout  all  the  future  of 
the  city's  history. 

The  Federation  has  developed  a  system  whereby  it  can  cover  one- 
fifth  of  the  population  of  New  York  City  in  a  minute  sociological 
inquiry  each  year,  besides  handling  in  each  year  the  population  in- 
quiries in  the  other  four-fifths  of  the  city,  made  by  the  churches  hav- 
ing charge  of  co-operative  parishes.  The  "minute  sociological  in- 
quiry" referred  to  includes  housing,  educational,  economical  and 
racial  conditions  as  well  as  religious  conditions,  and  the  inquiry  is 
designed  to  equip  the  churches  with  those  environment  features  which 
are  both  the  limitation  and  the  opportunity  of  their  work,  and  to 
make  this  inquiry,  in  the  name  and  for  the  sake  of  Christ,  as  fre- 
quently as  the  state  makes  inquiry  for  the  primal  purpose  of  appor- 
tioning representation  in  legislatures.  In  America,  as  in  all  other 
Christian  countries,  the  censuses  of  the  state  arc  more  than  mere 
enumerations,  but  the  facts  which  the  state  gathers  are  nearly  always 
published  on  such  a  scale  that  they  are  of  little  avail  to  direct  the 
work  of  particular  churches  or  Christian  organizations.  In  the 
Federal  Census  Bulletins  concerning  New  York  City,  for  example, 
the  smallest  area  reported  is  an  entire  Assembly  District,  while  in  the 
inquiries  of  the  Federation  of  Churches  the  facts,  on  the  other  hand, 
are  given  for  each  block  in  such  Assembly  District.  Moreover,  there 
is  no  means  of  connecting  the  State  Census  Bureaus,  through  direc- 
tories of  the  people,  with  the  practical  work  of  churches  and  Chris- 
tian organizations ;  but  this  the  voluntary  inquiry  can  and  docs  effect. 

Every  church  is,  through  the  canvass  and  co-operative  visitation, 
put  into  touch  with  the  families  that  adhere  to  it,  and  the  duplicate 
of  the  forms  which  are  tabulated  in  the  Federation's  office  directly 
acquaints  them  with  all  the  environment  conditions  of  their  clientele. 
This  information  has  in  one  or  two  instances  revolutionized  the 
methods  of  churches  in  the  city. 

The  original  canvassers'  forma  are  translated  in  the  Federation's 


346  CHRISTENDOM. 

central  office  into  card  directories  of  the  population  by  blocks,  na- 
tionalities and  religious  communions,  and  these  directories,  which  are 
made  on  a  pantagraph  similar  to  those  employed  in  the  Federal  Cen- 
sus Bureau,  can  be  tabulated  on  electrical  machines. 

It  is  the  application  of  this  latest  resource  of  statistical  compila- 
tion that  enables  the  Federation  to  be  such  an  effective  Sociological 
Bureau. 

CO-OPERATIVE   DISTRICT    PLAN. 

The  Federation  is  gradually  instituting  a  co-operative  parish 
system.  The  lines  of  the  districts  are  drawn  as  the  result  of  its 
inquiries.  It  gives,  for  instance,  blocks  in  which  there  are  many 
Italians,  to  churches  which  are  conducting  work  among  the  Italians. 
It  gives  blocks  in  which  there  are  many  Germans,  who  are  Baptists, 
to  a  German  Baptist  church  in  preference  to  a  Lutheran  church. 
Among  Americans  it  will  give  to  an  Episcopalian  church  bloclcs 
which  are  more  largely  Episcopalian  than  adjacent  blocks  which  are 
largely  Presbyterian,  and  which  should,  therefore,  be  assigned  in 
preference  to  a  Presbyterian  church. 

The  Federation  furnishes  each  church  taking  charge  of  a  parish 
with  a  card  directory  of  the  population  as  at  the  time  of  the  canvass. 
It  furnishes  each  church,  moreover,  with  cards  of  another  color,  but 
of  the  same  size,  on  which  the  newly  arrived  population  may  be 
recorded.  After  the  co-operative  visitation,  in  reporting  the  results, 
the  central  Federation  takes  no  account  of  the  original  cards  yet  re- 
maining, for  these  families  were  reported,  of  course,  in  the  process  of 
the  original  canvass,  but  it  does  report  the  families  recorded  on  the 
new  cards. 

It  is  the  duty  of  the  church  which  assumes  charge  of  such  a  co- 
operative parish  not  only  to  visit  its  entire  population  at  least  once  a 
year,  but  to  oversee  the  district  in  moral  matters.  In  some  such 
parishes  the  churches  have  investigated  the  legality  of  the  licenses 
of  the  saloons,  and  by  co-operation  succeeded  in  breaking  the  licenses 
of  those  whose  permits  had  been  obtained  by  false  representation. 
These  districts  are  to  be  watched  also  in  regard  to  disorderly  houses, 
and  besides  working  together,  on  the  district  plan,  to  fight  evil,  the 
churches  are  beginning  to  combine  in  philanthropic  matters.  A 
summer  playground  has  been  carried  on  in  one  district  by  co-opera- 
tive contributions  from  the  churches,  though,  to  their  shame  be  it 
said,  the  largest  gift  was  from  a  Jewess,  and  that  in  a  district  which 


FEDERATION    OF    CHURCHES.  347 

is  not  very  largely  Hebrew.  In  another  auxiliary  the  churches  are 
considering  the  engagement  of  a  physician  for  the  district.  In  that 
same  district,  on  the  united  petition  of  all  churches.  Catholic  and 
Protestant,  two  blocks  have  been  condemned  for  a  public  park.  The 
house-to-house  visitation  of  the  Federation  had  shown  the  churches 
in  this  neighborhood  that  there  are  several  blocks  whose  population 
is  nearly  1,000  to  an  acre. 

CO-OPERATIVE    CALENDARS. 

The  New  Year's  Greetings  of  the  Council  of  Evangelical  Free 
Churches  were  anticipated  in  New  York  by  a  calendar,  which  is  a 
good  illustration  of  the  difference  between  English  and  American 
conditions. 

The  English  New  Year  Greetings,  distributed  in  Birmingham, 
announce  only  the  Free  Church  services,  while  the  calendar  of 
Auxiliary  "A"  of  the  New  York  Federation  announces  all  places  of 
worship — Catholic,  Protestant  and  Hebrew — and  brings  to  the  atten- 
tion of  the  people  all  the  uplifting  institutions  of  the  neighborhood, 
such  as  schools,  savings  banks,  libraries,  etc.,  etc. 

In  England,  where  the  Free  churches  are  fighting  the  catechetical 
instruction  given  in  schools,  the  greetings  of  the  Free  churches  to 
their  neighborhood  could  not,  of  course,  make  mention  of  the  schools, 
except  to  their  detriment;  but  in  the  New  World  universal  education 
is  esteemed  so  important  that  it  is  compulsory,  and  the  day  schools 
are  supplemented  by  evening  schools.  The  Federation,  remembering 
that  the  recent  immigration  to  New  York  has  been  from  the  illiterate 
sections  of  Europe,  is  glad  to  advertise  the  existence  of  these  evening 
schools  in  every  language  spoken  in  a  district. 

INDUCTIVE    CHURCH   EXTENSION. 

The  studies  of  the  population  by  the  New  York  Federation  have 
enabled  it  to  suggest  to  the  various  churches'  extension  societies  of 
the  city  suitable  fields  fqr  their  work,  and,  unlike  the  English  Feder- 
ation, it  is  just  as  glad  to  institute  an  Episcopalian  as  a  Presbyterian 
or  Baptist  church.  It  has  actually  located  two  Episcopalian  churches, 
a  Lutheran  church,  a  Moravian,  and  directed  the  Baptists  in  two 
important  movements;  while  its  sociological  inquiries  have  located 
industrial  and  other  settlements,  kindergartens  and  similar  philan- 


348  CHRISTENDOM. 

thropic  work.  Its  disclosure,  in  1897,  of  the  fact  that  the  most 
populous  tenement  block  in  New  York  immediately  adjoins  its  most 
favored  residence  section,  was  deeply  influential  upon  the  enactment 
of  the  improved  tenement  house  legislation,  which  goes  into  effect  in 
1902.  Its  investigation  of  the  bathing  facilities  of  the  tenements 
has  led  several  of  the  churches  to  provide  for  this  physical  need  of 
their  neighborhood. 

Thus,  while  the  control  of  the  New  York  Federation  is  Protestant, 
it  is  the  friend  of  every  church  and  charity  that  is  ministering  to  the 
people,  and  its  investigations  are  so  comprehensive  that  it  can  aid 
civic  religion  as  well  as  personal  evangelism. 

CHICAGO  AND  OTHER  CITIES. 

Chicago  has  a  federation  called  the  "Chicago  Federation  of  Re- 
ligious Workers."  It  is  thus  an  association  of  individuals  rather 
than  of  churches,  and  it  will  be  noticed  that  its  name  is  more  com- 
prehensive than  that  of  the  New  York  work.  It  does  not  yet  appear, 
however,  that  the  indefiniteness  of  the  name  has  increased  the  vitality 
of  the  organization,  which  has,  as  yet,  made  no  large  history.  Its 
prospectus  calls  for  a  Bureau  of  Information  which  shall  do  a  work 
similar  to  that  done  in  New  York,  and  for  the  promotion  of  federa- 
tive effort  in  various  districts  of  the  city.  The  president  of  the 
Federation  is  Prof.  Graham  Taylor. 

The  "Evangelical  Alliance  of  Boston  and  Vicinity,"  which,  as 
before  stated,  has  become  a  practical  federation  of  churches,  as  the 
result  of  the  experience  of  the  New  York  work,  has  conducted  united 
open-air  services  and  a  ministration  in  the  hospitals,  and  is  moving, 
in  the  words  of  the  report  for  1900,  "toward  a  work  for  the  neg- 
lected sections  of  Boston,  similar  to  the  work  in  progress  in  New 
York." 

Continuing  the  account  of  federation  in  American  cities,  in  the 
order  of  their  size,  as  they  appear  in  the  above  statement,  mention 
Bhould  next  be  made  of  the  "Christian  Federation  of  Cleveland," 
which  is  still  in  process  of  organization.  It  is  not  pronouncedly  a 
federation  of  churches,  but  it  yet  designs  to  be  such,  and  it  began  in 
January,  1901,  by  the  distribution,  in  a  section  of  the  city,  of  a  direc- 
tory of  church  services.  The  organization  is  encountering  a  great 
deal  of  apathy,  but  may  yet  develop,  especially  if  some  defects  in  or- 
ganization plan  are  remedied,  into  a  strong  federation. 


FEDERATION    OF    CHURCHES.  349 

In  Pittsburg,  Pa.,  and  in  Allegheny,  there  is  a  quite  vigorous 
federation,  which  has  instituted  a  house-to-house  religious  census, 
appointed  a  Tenement  House  Committee,  and  devoted  attention  to 
the  problems  for  effective  evangelization  which  arise  from  the  Sun- 
day and  seven-day  labor  of  that  great  industrial  centre.  It  is  quite 
apparent  that  the  church  will  command  the  interest  of  laboring  men 
in  such  a  community  in  direct  proportion  to  its  interest  in  the  adap- 
tation of  the  Sabbatic  code  of  the  Hebrews,  which  originated  among 
a  pastoral  and  agricultural  people,  to  the  clianged  conditions  of  a 
manufacturing  community.  In  Minnesota  the  state  has  discovered 
that  over  one-third  of  the  workers  in  manufacturing  establishments 
work  on  Sundays,  some  of  them  as  many  as  fifty-two  Sundays  a  year, 
and  a  Christian  Church  which  shall  meet  the  needs  of  workingmen 
must  be  willing  to  take  its  message  into  their  midst,  and  must  be  the 
friend  of  remedial  legislation  to  secure  them  their  rights  of  rest. 

In  Detroit  the  Federation  of  Christian  Churches  restricts  its  mem- 
bership to  "evangelical  churches,"  and  has  thereby  lost  the  co-opera- 
tion of  some  churches  which  are  evangelical,  but  which  believe  that 
federation,  on  a  Christian  basis,  is  more  likely  to  be  effective  if  words 
which  are  shibboleths  are  omitted  from  the  constitution.  The  feder- 
ation, however,  is  moving  slowly  forward. 

Jersey  City  has  a  federation  which  omits  both  the  words  "evan- 
gelical" and  "Christian"  from  its  constitution,  but  it  in  turn  limited 
itself  at  the  outset  by  declining  to  receive  the  negro  churches  into  the 
movement. 

Providence,  R.  I.,  is  the  centre  for  a  federative  organization  which 
designs  to  cover  the  whole  state,  which  is  at  once  one  of  the  smallest 
and  the  most  urban  of  the  states  of  the  Union.  The  Federation  is 
not  yet  fully  under  way,  but  it  has  powerful  sympathizers  and  sup- 
porters, and  the  Universalists  are  interested,  as  well  as  the  Baptists 
and  other  leading  communions. 

Rochester,  N.  Y.,  is  having  difficulty  from  the  inclusiveness  of  its 
Federation's  constitution.  The  Methodists  have  declined,  as  a  body, 
to  enter  the  work  because  the  Unitarians  are  eligible  for  membership. 

Toledo  is  moving  toward  a  co-operative  Protestant  parish  system 
on  the  lines  of  the  New  York  work,  and,  in  its  religious  census,  is 
treating  the  Catholics  and  Hebrews  precisely  as  does  the  New  York 
Federation,  though  the  constitution  admits  to  membership  only 
"evangelical  churches." 

Columbus,  like  Rochester,  and  unlike  Detroit,  has  encountered 


350  CHKISTENDOM. 

complications  because  the  Universalists  are  included,  and  Syracuse, 
on  the  other  hand,  which  omits  the  word  "evangelical"  from  its  con- 
stitution, is  progressing  toward  the  districting  of  the  city. 

New  Haven,  Conn.,  has  a  federation  which  is  four  years  old,  and, 
under  the  oversight  of  the  Connecticut  Bible  Society,  which  has  for 
several  years  made  religious  tabulations  in  the  cities  of  the  state,  but 
which,  unlike  the  New  York  Federation,  has  not  included  socio- 
logical and  educational  problems  in  its  inquiries,  has  already  made  a 
census  of  the  city  and  divided  it  into  sub-federations. 

In  Cambridge,  Mass.,  there  is  an  organization  called  "The  Asso- 
ciated Churches."  It  is  the  creation,  very  largely,  of  Dean  Hodges, 
of  the  Episcopal  Divinity  School.  Dr.  Hodges,  in  his  book,  "Faith 
and  Social  Service,"  has  proved  that  co-operation  is  the  patent  duty 
of  the  hour  in  the  church  life  of  the  nation,  and  the  book  concludes 
with  a  recommendation  of  the  adoption,  in  all  American  cities,  of 
work  similar  to  the  work  in  New  York.  Cambridge  is  divided  into 
districts,  and  all  churches,  except  the  Eoman  Catholic  and  one  Prot- 
estant, are  in  the  movement. 

In  Methuen,  Mass.,  the  "Christian  League"  has  been  in  existence 
since  1887,  and  is  a  result  of  the  work  of  the  Evangelical  Alliance  of 
the  United  States.  It  has  conducted  religious  censuses,  a  successful 
"No  License"  campaign;  removed  objectionable  illustrated  papers 
from  the  news-stands ;  kept  the  theatrical  billboards  clean,  and  sup- 
pressed short-termed  insurance.  It  is  one  of  the  earliest  federations 
of  churches,  in  the  sense  of  providing,  in  its  constitution,  for  church 
memberships.     It  antedates  the  English  movement  by  five  years. 

Hartford,  Conn.,  Winsted,  New  Britain  and  other  towns  of  the 
state  have  federations  which  are  operating  district  plans,  influencing 
municipal  administration,  and  carrying  on  various  activities  adapted 
to  their  varying  needs,  while  in  Erie,  Pa.,  Easton  and  other  cities 
there  are  organizations  which  adhere  to  the  "Evangelical  Alliance" 
title,  but  which  are  doing  federative  work. 

The  foregoing  facts  concerning  federation  in  American  cities  prove 
that  there  is  no  patent  plan  which  can  be  taken  from  one  city  to 
another  and  applied,  without  change,  to  meet  the  needs  and  possi- 
bilities of  co-operation.  One  thing  is  certain,  however,  namely,  that 
the  principle  called  by  sociologists  "consciousness  of  kind"  is  a  good 
working  principle  for  the  institution  of  federative  work.  A  second 
fact  is  evident,  namely,  that  there  is  not  a  single  American  city  where 
it  would  be  either  courteous  or  judicious  to  institute  a  federation 


FEDEEATION    OF    CHURCHES.  361 

from  which  the  Episcopalian  churches  should  be  excluded.  English- 
men may  say  that  this  should  be  done,  because  there  is  not  a  free  ex- 
change of  pulpits  between  the  Episcopalian  and  other  religious  com- 
munions. The  proper  reply  to  this  is  that  there  are  many  Lutheran 
churches  in  which  the  same  principle  of  exclusion  obtains.  It  is 
difficult  to  see,  however,  how  the  needs  of  New  York,  for  example, 
should  ever  be  met  by  a  federation  which  should  exclude  any  auxil- 
iary force  of  Christian  righteousness. 

Federation  in  rural  communities  has  exhibited  its  possibilities 
most  signally  in  the  State  of  Maine.  That  state,  in  1900,  was  23.7 
per  cent,  urban,  and  in  1890,  when  the  work  of  the  Interdenomina- 
tional Commission  began,  was  19.7  per  cent,  urban.  The  Commis- 
sion held  its  first  meeting  at  Brunswick,  Me.,  in  that  year,  and  by 
1893  had  passed  the  experimental  stage.  Five  denominations  are 
concerned  in  it,  namely,  the  Baptists,  Free  Baptists,  Christians,  Con- 
gregationalists,  and  Methodists.  The  denominations  concerned  are 
committed  to  a  practical  co-operation  in  church  extension  in  the  new 
industrial  villages.  It  is  the  custom  to  establish  a  union  church 
through  the  co-operation  of  the  missionary  societies  which  recognize 
that  there  is  an  ultimate,  if  not  an  immediate,  possibility  of  building 
up  an  independent  work.  Such  churches  continue  to  be  union 
churches  under  the  oversight  of  the  Commission  for  a  period  of 
vears,  and  then,  by  a  vote,  the  churches  determine  to  what  denomina- 
tion they  shall  thereafter  adhere.  The  Millinockctt  church,  which 
was  founded  among  a  new  community  on  the  borders  of  the  Penob- 
scot and  Aroostook  pulp  region,  is  the  historic  and  prophetic  instance 
of  such  co-operation  in  church  extension.  The  building  was  erected 
jointly,  a  minister  was  placed  in  charge,  and  it  was  agreed  that  the 
work  should  be  a  union  work  till  one  denomination  should  assume 
sole  support  by  the  consent  of  the  majority.  The  principle  is  fur- 
ther applied  by  making  canvasses  of  communities  in  which  church 
extension  is  desired  or  projected,  and  the  canvass  sometimes  deter- 
mines the  particular  communion  which  is  to  enter. 

The  State  of  Vermont  is  even  more  rural  than  Maine,  having  l)ut 
11  2  per  cent,  of  urban  population.  Its  Governor  has  recently  pub- 
licly bemoaned  the  decadence  of  its  Christian  institutions.  This 
decadence,  in  the  minds  of  many  of  the  local  Christian  workers,  is 
believed  to  be  traceable  to  the  lack  of  federative  common-sense  in  the 
conduct  of  home  mission  work.  One  worker  says :  "We  were  forced 
into  forming  a  committee  on  interdenominational  comity  by  the  fact 


362  CHRISTENDOM. 

that  in  many  of  our  small  villages  some  three  or  four  denomina- 
tions were  at  work,  all  weak,  and  demanding  missionary  aid,  and 
none  of  them  really  doing  much  for  the  communities.  In  a  few 
eases  adjustments  have  been  made  and  one  has  retired  to  make  room 
for  others.  A  weak  body  yields  to  a  stronger  one  in  a  given  locality, 
and  that  stronger  one  yields  in  another  place  where  it  may  be  weak. 
Practical  men  are  beginning  to  feel  that  something  must  be  done  to 
prevent  waste  and  give  more  efficient  service."  The  Congregation- 
alists,  Baptists,  Methodists,  Christians  and  Free  Baptists  are  here 
co-operating  as  in  the  State  of  Maine. 

It  is  without  doubt  true  that  there  are  many  states  of  the  Amer- 
ican Union  which  need  commissions  similar  to  that  in  the  State  of 
Maine  and  in  Vermont.  Massachusetts  and  New  York  and  Penn- 
sylvania already  have  committees  on  comity,  but  they  are  not  in  any 
instance  inclusive  of  all  of  the  strong  communions  of  these  states, 
and  it  is  altogether  likely  that  this  particular  aspect  of  federation 
work  has  a  more  hopeful  field  in  the  states  which  are  less  than  half 
urban  than  in  the  states  where  the  majority  of  the  population  is 
domiciled  in  cities.  Even  thus,  however,  federation  can  effect  great 
economies  which  will  be  honored  of  Him  who  acquired  His  Messianic 
consciousness  in  the  thickly  settled  Galilee  of  His  time,  and  who, 
after  working  His  great  miracle,  in  the  comparative  desert  across  its 
lake,  said  to  His  disciples :  "Gather  up  the  fragments,  that  nothing 
be  lost.'' 

In  these  sparsely  settled  areas,  as  well  as  in  the  cities  of  alien 
population,  federation  in  the  New  World  must  work  out  its  own 
problems,  emulating,  but  not  imitating,  the  methods  of  federation  in 
the  Old. 


ROBERT    RAIKKS. 


THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL, 


A.   F.   SCHAUFFLER^  D.D., 
NEW    YORK. 

[We  are  the  chisel  with  which  God  carves  His  statues.  The  mother,  the 
teacher,  the  Christian  friend,  must  carve  and  mould  the  life  of  the  child  into 
the  beauty  of  the  Lord.  The  sculptor  needs  his  chisel ;  but  the  chisel  can  do 
nothing,  produce  no  beauty  of  itself.  We  must  put  ourselves  into  Christ's 
hands  that  he  may  use  us.  God  will  work  through  us  only  when  we  humbly, 
in  faith  and  love  and  self-renunciation,  lay  ourselves  into  his  hands.  There 
is  a  hallowing  and  an  inspiring  influence  in  the  thought  that  we  are  working 
beside  God  in  what  he  is  doing  on  immortal  lives.  Are  we  worthy  to  do  it? 
Hawthorne,  speaking  of  a  block  of  marble,  and  the  possibilities  of  beauty  that 
lie  in  it,  waiting  to  be  brought  out,  said  that  the  stone  assumed  a  sacred  char- 
acter, and  that  no  man  should  dare  touch  it  unless  he  felt  within  himself  a 
consecration  and  a  priesthood.  If  this  be  true  when  it  is  only  a  block  of 
marble  that  is  to  be  wrought  upon,  how  much  more  is  it  true  of  a  human  soul 
— a  child's  life,  for  example,  laid  in  a  mother's  arms ;  any  life  laid  in  your 
hands  or  mine — that  we  may  free  the  angel  that  waits  within  it?  It  is  a 
nost  sacred  moment  when  a  life  is  put  before  us  to  be  touched  by  us.  Sup- 
pose that  the  mother — suppose  that  you  or  I — should  not  do  the  holy  work 
well,  and  the  life  should  be  marred,  hurt,  stunted,  its  beauty  blurred,  its 
purity  stained,  its  power  weakened  :  think  of  the  sadness  of  the  result.  How 
sweet  the  mother  must  keep  her  own  spirit,  how  gentle,  how  patient,  how  pure 
and  true,  while  she  is  working  with  God  in  nursing  her  child  for  Him! 
How  heavenly  must  the  teacher  keep  his  temper,  how  quiet,  how  unselfish, 
bow  Christlike,  when  he  is  sitting  beside  the  Master,  working  with  Him  on 
the  lives  of  the  scholars  !— J.  II.  Milleb,  D.  D.  "The  Building  of  Character." 
p.  54.— Ed.] 

*  *  * 

Modern  Sunday-schools  date  from  July,  1780,  when  Robert 
Eaikes,  moved  by  the  spiritual  destitution  of  the  poorer  class  of  chil- 
dren in  the  city  of  Gloucester,  England,  started  a  Sunday-school  for 
their  benefit.  As  early  as  1787  there  were  in  Great  Britain  as  many 
as  250,000  pupils  enrolled  in  these  schools.  Intended  at  the  start 
for  the  more  illiterate  classes,  they  soon  found  favor  among  the  better 
educated,  until  at  the  present  time  there  is  no  community  where  they 
are  not  to  be  found.  The  result  is  that  at  the  present  day  the  Sun- 
day-school army  is  numbered  by  the  million.  It  is  distributed  as 
follows:  In  North  America— Schools,  148,139;  teachers,  1,482,- 
308;  scholars,  12,017,325;  total,  13,499,633.     Great  Britain  and 

353 


354  CHKISTENDOM. 

Ireland— Schools,  47,060;  teachers,  676,151;  scholars,  6,979,913; 
total,  7,703,324.  Massing  all  other  lands,  we  find  that  they  have  in 
their  Sunday-schools  a  total  of  3,330,547,  making,  with  the  above- 
named  lands,  a  grand  total  in  the  Sunday-school  army  of  24,553,314. 

For  many  years  the  Bible  was  studied  with  the  aid  of  such  lesson 
helps  as  teachers  could  secure,  but  in  time  there  came  to  be  prepared 
by  various  publishing  houses  regular  "Question  Books,"  which  se- 
cured a  considerable  circulation.  As  yet,  however,  there  was  no  such 
thing  as  uniformity  in  the  parts  of  Scripture  studied.  Indeed,  the 
stricter  denominations,  like  the  Episcopal  and  the  Lutheran,  used 
their  own  church  catechisms  for  the  instruction  of  the  young.  As 
the  results  of  much  thought,  study  and  conference,  in  1872  what  is 
called  the  "International  Lesson  System"'  was  adopted  in  the  United 
States,  and  soon  largely  accepted  in  Canada,  Great  Britain  and  other 
English-speaking  lands.  The  ruling  thought  of  this  system  was  that 
in  all  Sunday-schools,  and  all  classes  in  tlie  same  school,  the  same  por- 
tion of  Scripture  should  be  studied  on  the  same  day.  Such  favor  did 
this  system  find,  that  at  the  present  day  a  vast  majority  of  Sunday- 
schools  the  world  over  have  taken  it  up,  and  its  adherents  are  num- 
bered by  millions. 

One  of  the  results  of  the  wide  adoption  of  the  International  Les- 
son System  has  been  that  many  of  the  ablest  divines  and  teachers 
in  the  church  have  been  engaged  to  write  "Teachers'  Helps"  of  vari- 
ous kinds,  so  that  now  the  average  teacher  has  such  assistance  as 
those  in  the  last  century  never  could  have  secured. 

For  the  further  education  of  the  vast  army  of  teachers,  summer 
schools  such  as  that  of  Chautauqua,  Framingham,  Round  Lake,  etc., 
have  been  started,  where  in  the  summer  season  teachers  could  receive 
instruction  as  to  not  only  the  Book  itself,  but  also  as  to  principles  of 
pedagogy,  to  better  fit  them  for  tlieir  work.  Conventions — county, 
state,  national  and  international — luive  sprung  up,  where  those  most 
competent  are  ready  to  give  instruction  and  exchange  views  with  re- 
gard to  the  Word  and  the  work. 

One  of  the  latest  additions  to  the  Sunday-school  has  been  the 
"Home  Department."  It  was  found  that  there  were  multitudes  who 
for  various  good  reasons  were  not  able  to  attend  the  regular  sessions 
of  the  Sunday-school,  who  yet  were  anxious  to  adopt  some  system- 
atic line  of  Biblical  study.  This  being  the  case,  it  was  not  difficult 
to  enlist  such  persons  in  the  study  of  the  regular  lesson  of  the  Sun- 
day-school, and  so  great  has  been  the  number  of  those  joining  the 


THE    SUN^DAY-SCHOOL.  355 

Home  Departmrat  that  (at  least  in  the  United  States)  an  especial 
literature  has  sprung  up  for  their  benefit. 

At  first  all  the  work  of  teaching  and  superintending  the  .Sunday- 
school  was  done  by  volunteers.  But  the  vast  importance  of  the  work 
to  be  done  has  so  impressed  itself  on  the  mind  of  the  church  that  it  is 
now  not  uncommon  to  meet  with  regularly  trained  and  paid  Sunday- 
school  superintendents,  who  in  turn  train  their  corps  of  volunteer 
teachers.  In  the  primary  departments  of  many  of  our  Sunday- 
schools  may  be  found  paid  teachers,  who  have  had  especial  training 
in  Kindergarten  work. 

Sunday-school  work  has  modified  largely  church  architecture.  In 
former  days  there  was  no  provision  made  for  the  right  accommoda- 
tion of  classes.  The  conventional  church  edifice  consisted  of  an  audi- 
torium (called  the  church)  and  an  additional  room  called  the  prayer 
meeting  room.  Now  no  church  can  be  considered  "well-appointed" 
unless  it  has  made  especial  provision  for  the  wants  of  the  Sunday- 
school.  Primary  rooms,  adult  class  rooms,  and  well-adapted  "forms" 
for  the  smaller  classes  can  be  found  in  every  city,  in  great  numbers 
of  churches,  and  in  some  cases  the  Sunday-school  appointments  have 
cost  the  church  as  much  as  the  main  structure  itself. 

As  between  the  Sunday-school  at  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  and  that  at  the  close,  there  is  a  vast  difference.  About  the 
only  things  that  have  remained  the  same  are  the  prayers  and  the 
kindly  relationship  between  teacher  and  scholar.  All  else  has 
changed  vastly.  The  music  is  better,  the  library  has  improved,  the 
weekly  papers  are  a  great  advance  on  what  they  used  to  be,  the  whole 
organization  has  made  progress,  and  the  grade  of  teaching  is  higher. 

In  spite,  however,  of  all  this  encouraging  progress,  none  knows 
better  than  the  trained  Sunday-school  worker  that  we  are  still  far 
from  the  true  goal  at  which  we  should  aim.  "There  ig.yet  much 
land  to  be  possessed."  For  while  some  noted  Sunday-schools  are 
very  near  the  hundred  per  cent,  mark,  the  vast  majority  are  only 
fifty  per  cent.,  if  not  lower  even  than  that.  Every  experienced  worker 
needs  but  to  go  to  almost  any  of  our  Sunday-schools,  and  to  keep  his 
eyes  open,  to  see  how  far  short  they  come  in  the  matter  of  prompti- 
tude, order,  good  singing,  and  above  all,  good  teaching.  Teachers 
minus  classes,  classes  minus  teachers,  disorderly  classes,  listlesB 
scholars — all  these  things  will  soon  be  apparent  to  the  careful  ob- 
server. And,  if  more  careful  investigation  be  made,  many  other  de- 
fects will  soon  be  discovered,  such  as  loss  of  scholars,  deficient  grad- 


356  CHRISTENDOM. 

ing,  worn-out  condition  of  the  library,  dilapidated  state  and  insuf- 
ficient number  of  hymn-books. 

If  now  we  pause  and  ask,  "What  is  it  that  constitutes  the  difference 
between  the  good  Sunday-school  and  the  one  that  is  deficient?"  we 
shall,  in  the  last  resort,  find  it  expressed  in  the  one  word  leadership. 

The  secret  of  the  excellence  of  our  noted  Sunday-schools  is  always 
to  be  found  in  the  fact  that  some  really  able  man  is  at  the  head  and 
directs  the  various  departments  of  the  school.  Given  such  a  man 
and  the  success  of  the  school  is  assured,  in  spite  of  any  adverse  cir- 
cumstances that  may  surround  the  school.  I  have  seen  a  very  good 
school  in  most  inadequate  rooms,  and  a  very  bad  school  in  palatial 
quarters.  I  have  seen  a  most  orderly  school  in  the  roughest  tene- 
ment district,  and  a  most  disorderly  school  in  a  quiet  New  England 
village.  Why  this  difference?  Simply  because  of  the  difference  in 
the  leader.  Put  a  John  Wanamaker  into  any  mob  of  a  school,  and 
he  will  before  long  evolve  order  out  of  chaos;  or  put  a  Frank  A. 
Ferris  into  the  most  disorganized  school,  and  in  a  year  you  will  find 
it  most  highly  and  sensibly  organized. 

But  such  lay  workers  are  like  angels'  visits,  "few  and  far  between." 
For  one  of  these  competent  men  we  find  a  hundred  that  are  incom- 
petent. By  far  the  larger  part  of  the  superintendents  in  our  land 
are  not  even  college  graduates,  and  the  vast  majority  of  our  teachers 
have  no  higher  education  than  that  given  in  our  grammar  schools. 
Here  and  there  a  man  like  those  mentioned  above  has  quite  excep- 
tional ability,  which  soon  shows  itself.  But  this  is  not  the  case  with 
the  majority.  It  must  ever  remain  true  that  the  average  superinten- 
dent does  not  know  how  to  fill  his  office  successfully,  and  the  average 
teacher  docs  poor  work  from  the  pedagogical  standpoint. 

Must  this  remain  the  case  through  the  whole  of  the  twentieth  cen- 
tury? Not  necessarily.  There  is  a  remedy  for  all  this  paucity  of 
competent  Sunday-school  workers. 

In  looking  forward  to  the  coming  century,  it  seems  to  the  writer 
that  the  main  need  of  the  Sunday-school  is  the  more  systematic 
preparation  of  the  teacher  for  the  work  required.  Of  necessity, 
teachers  must  be  recruited  from  the  ranks  of  the  laity.  The  vast 
majority  of  them  are,  and  ever  must  be,  more  or  less  unfitted  for  the 
best  work.  In  our  public  schools  we  employ  only  those  who  have 
been  through  a  process  of  pedagogical  instruction.  The  lack  of  any 
guch  instruction  is  a  sore  evil  in  the  Sunday-school.  When  in  addi- 
tion to  this  it  is  remembered  that  the  body  of  Sunday-school  teachers 


THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL.  357 

is  constantly  changing,  and  now  and  utterly  inexperienced  teachers 
are  coming  to  the  front,  the  need  of  some  systematic  teaching  of  the 
teacher  is  more  and  more  apparent.  On  an  average,  teachers  change 
about  once  in  four  years.  Merely  to  state  this  fact  is  to  prove  the 
need  of  such  preparation.  No  adequate  provision  can  be  made  for 
such  instruction,  unless  it  be  found  in  the  ranks  of  the  ordained 
ministry.  The  minister  of  the  church  must,  in  the  last  resort,  be  re- 
sponsible for  the  right  training  of  his  teachers  how  to  teach.  But 
for  the  average  minister,  as  at  present  furnislied  by  our  theological 
seminaries,  to  do  this,  is  not  possible.  He  is  not  fitted  for  the  im- 
portant task.  Therefore  it  would  seem  as  though  in  all  of  our  theo- 
logical seminaries  an  especial  department  should  be  maintained  in 
which  pedagogical  principles  could  be  taught,  so  that  the  graduate 
should  be  the  competent  leader  and  instructor  of  his  own  corps  of 
teachers.  When  the  seminaries  turn  out  ministers  able  to  teach 
teachers  how  and  what  to  teach,  then,  and  not  until  then,  will  the 
force  of  Sunday-school  teachers  be  thoroughly  competent  to  do  the 
work  that  is  required  of  them. 

So  potent  has  been  the  influence  of  Sunday-schools  that  our  Ro- 
man Catholic  friends  have  been  forced  to  establish  such  schools  for 
their  own  children  and  youth  in  all  Protestant  lands.  Otherwise 
they  found  that  their  children  were  largely  lost  to  them,  for  they 
easily  found  their  way  into  the  attractive  Sunday-schools  of  the  va- 
rious Protestant  churches.  This  holds  true  only  in  those  lands  where 
Protestantism  and  Catholicism  are  brought  into  competition.  Even 
Jewish  communities  have  had  to  have  recourse  to  something  similar 
to  the  modern  Sunday-school  so  as  to  keep  their  young  people  from 
seeking  entrance  into  Gentile  schools. 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  YOUNG  MEN'S 
CHRISTIAN  ASSOCIATION. 


President  L.  L.  Doggett,  Ph.D., 

SPRIKGFIELD. 

[The  nineteenth  century  excelled  all  its  predecessors  In  its  extraordinary 
scientific  discoveries  and  its  ingenious  and  useful  inventions.  Among  what 
may  be  called  its  religious  inventions  I  would  assign  the  highest  place  to  the 
Young  Men's  Christian  Association  ;  for  foreign  missionary  societies  were 
started  by  William  Carey  in  the  closing  years  of  the  eighteenth  century.  If 
any  man  of  our  era  was  directly  guided  by  the  Holy  Spirit  to  "rise  up  and 
build,"  it  was  our  beloved  friend  Sir  George  Williams,  who  organized  the 
first  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  in  June,  1S44.  He  "builded  better 
than  he  knew,"  for  the  "Grand  Old  Man"  has  lived  to  see  more  than  six 
thousand  a:sociatIccs,  bt^ting  the  whole  globe,  with  half  a  million  members, 
and  ten  times  that  number  in  some  direct  connection  with  the  organization. 

The  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  is  not  a  society  on  paper ;  it  has 
housed  itself  in  hundreds  of  solid  structures  (at  a  cost  of  many  millions), 
each  one  a  social  home,  a  place  for  physical  development,  mental  instruction 
and  training  for  Christ's  service.  It  has  brought  thousands  of  young  men 
from  impenitence  to  Christ  Jesus,  and  made  thousands  of  young  Christians 
more  like  Jesus  in  their  daily  lives.  The  most  effective  lay  preacher  and 
organizer  of  the  century,  Dwight  L.  Moody,  confessed  that  in  bis  training 
for  spiritual  work  he  owed  more  to  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association 
than  to  any  other  human  agency.  To  the  world-known  name  of  Moody  may 
be  added  the  names  of  William  E.  Dodge,  Jr.,  Cyrus  H.  McCormick,  Robert 
ft.  McBurney,  William  E.  Shipton  of  London,  John  K.  Mott,  Richard  C. 
Morse,  John  Wanamaker,  and  hundreds  of  others  to  whom  our  association 
has  been  both  an  inspiration  and  instructor  in  the  Master's  service.  It  has 
moulded  the  students  of  colleges  and  universities :  it  has  put  a  Christian 
signal-light  into  the  hands  of  thousands  of  railroad  men  ;  it  has  been  a  salva- 
tion to  many  a  soldier  and  sailor ;  it  has  led  many  into  the  Gospel  ministry  ; 
it  has  taught  the  whole  world  the  beauty  and  power  of 'a  living  unity  in  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Tl  o  Holy  Spirit  has  set  the  divine  seal  of  His  approval 
and  blessing  on  its  world-wide  work,  and  to  the  Triune  God  be  all  the  praise 
and  all  the  glory ! — Theodore  L.  Cuyler. 

The  Y'oung  Men's  Christian  Association,  by  its  own  work  and  by  the  work 
of  the  organizations  inspired  by  it,  has  been  the  chief  influence  of  the  century 
in  making  Christianity  a  life  to  live  instead  of  a  theory  to  talk  about.  This 
means  that  it  has  helped  to  make  it  a  reality  to  be  reckoned  with  now,  rather 
than  an  ideal  to  be  aspired  to  some  time.  The  effect  of  this  influence  upon  the 
young  manhood  of  the  world  is  one  of  the  modern  miracles  which  attest  to 

358 


YOUNG    MEN.  359 

this  practical  age  tlie  truth  of  the  Gospel  of  our  Lord  and  Master,  Christ, 
and  is  spreading  His  Kingdom  mightily  in  the  hearts  of  the  strong  men  of 
this  age  of  strength  and  power.  Through  it  the  educated  men  of  our  day  are 
more  strongly  and  sanely  religious  than  ever  before ;  through  it  the  business 
men  are  more  and  more  approving  the  business  methods  of  the  Church  of 
God  and  conforming  their  own  methods  to  its  standards ;  through  it  we 
may  well  expect  that  the  ever-increasing  emphasis  laid  by  the  public  con- 
science on  our  duty  toward  our  neighbor  will  lead  to  a  like  increasing  recog- 
nition of  our  duty  toward  God  as  a  correlative  and  inseparable  obligation. 
This  influence  is  the  great  achievement  of  the  century.  The  wonderful  sta- 
tistics of  growth  in  numbers,  equipment  and  efficiency  are  only  hints  of  the 
significance  of  this  achievement. — James  L.  Hougiiteli.ng. — Ed.] 
*  *  * 

The  task  of  the  twentieth  century  will  be  the  setting  up  of  the 
Kingdom  of  God  in  the  city.  The  most  important  element  in  the 
city  population  is  made  up  of  young  men.  The  city  will  dominate 
the  civilization  of  the  new  century,  and  the  young  men  will  domi- 
nate the  city.  The  first  achievement  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian 
Association  has  been  the  creation  of  an  agency  for  winning  young 
men  of  the  city  to  Jesus  Christ. 

In  addition  to  work  for  young  men  in  cities,  the  Association  in 
America  has  reached  out  to  all  classes  of  young  men.  In  America 
there  are  5,000,000  young  men  in  cities,  1,000,000  men  employed 
upon  railroads,  100,000  men  in  the  army  and  navy,  and  200,000 
young  men  in  institutions  of  higher  learning.  The  most  successful 
agency  in  carrying  the  Gospel  to  this  unique  and  important  body  of 
men  is  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association. 

The  history  of  the  Association  falls  into  two  periods :  the  period 
of  volunteer  effort  and  the  period  of  secretarial  leadership.  These 
are  roughly  separated  by  the  year  1871,  when  the  conference  of  the 
secretaries  of  North  America  was  established.  Prior  to  this  time 
the  leadership  of  the  Association  was  in  the  hands  of  experts  who 
were  employed  to  give  their  whole  time  to  work  among  young  men. 

The  first  achievement  of  this  period  was  the  founding  of  the  Asso- 
ciation imder  the  leadership  of  George  Williams.  With  remarkable 
rapidity  the  idea,  which  first  took  definite  shape  at  London  on  June 
6,  1844,  spread  to  the  continent  and  to  the  United  States.  In  1855, 
97  representatives  of  329  different  associations,  from  nine  different 
countries,  from  all  Protestant  denominations,  representing  a  mem- 
bership of  30,000  young  men,  assembled  at  Paris  and  announced  to 
the  Christian  world  the  platform  upon  which  the  new  organization 
would  stand : 


360  CHRISTENDOM. 

"The  Young  Men's  Christian  Associations  seek  to  unite  those 
young  men  who,  regarding  Jesus  Christ  as  their  God  and  Saviour 
according  to  the  Holy  Scriptures,  desire  to  be  His  disciples  in  their 
doctrine  and  in  their  life,  and  to  associate  their  efforts  for  the  ex- 
tension of  His  Kingdom  among  young  men." 

The  second  achievement  of  this  period  was  the  inaugurating  of 
the  international  work  in  America,  under  the  leadership  of  William 
Chauncey  Langdon,  of  Washington.  With  prophetic  eye,  when 
there  were  but  seven  associations  in  the  United  States,  he  saw  an 
organization  of  Christian  young  men  touching  every  city  in  the 
land,  bound  together  by  ties  of  fellowship  into  a  national  union, 
moving  toward  one  common  end.  The  First  International  Com- 
mittee was  located  at  Washington  in  1854,  with  Mr.  Langdon  as 
corresponding  secretary.  For  twelve  years  the  committee  moved 
from  place  to  place,  until  1866,  when,  on  the  motion  of  Eobert  R. 
McBurney,  permanent  headquarters  were  established  in  New  York 
City,  with  Mr.  Cephas  Brainerd  as  chairman.  The  American  asso- 
ciations were  the  first  to  awaken  to  a  national  consciousness.  This 
plan  of  administration  under  an  executive  committee  was  adopted 
by  the  World's  Conference  in  1878,  introduced  into  England  in  1882, 
and  into  Germany  a  year  later.  Thus  an  association  polity  was 
created  which  makes  the  local  Association  the  original  and  inde- 
pendent unit  of  organization,  and  places  the  supervising  agencies 
in  an  advisory  relationship.  It  has  proved  elastic,  adaptable  and 
efficient. 

It  was  through  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  that  the 
great  awakening  of  1857  and  1858  touched  American  religious  life. 
No  preacher  or  evangelist  stands  out  as  the  leader  of  this  revival. 
It  was  characterized  by  meetings  for  prayer  by  laymen,  usually  at 
the  noon  hour,  under  the  auspices  of  Young  Men's  Christian  Asso- 
ciations. In  this  movement  was  developed  the  type  of  evangelistic 
work  and  Gospel  music  which  has  been  dominant  in  the  church 
tinder  the  leadership  of  Mr.  Dwight  L.  Moody.  This  revival  quick- 
ened the  spiritual  life  of  the  associations  not  only  in  the  United 
States,  but  in  the  British  Isles,  and  stamped  an  ineffaceable  evan- 
gelistic character  upon  them.  At  the  same  time  it  diverted  many 
associations  in  America  from  specific  work  for  young  men  by  young 
men,  and  led  a  large  section  of  the  American  movement  for  years 
into  general  evangelistic  endeavor.  It  created  for  the  Association 
the  Men's  Gospel  Meeting. 


SIR   GEORGE   WILLIAMS. 


YOUNG    MEN.  3G1 

It  was  probably  owing  to  the  religious  awakening  preceding  the 
Civil  War  that  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  for  the  first 
time  undertook,  in  a  systematic  way,  to  carry  the  Gospel  to  soldiers 
under  arms.  The  United  States  Christian  Commission  was  an 
outgrowth  of  the  Army  Committee  of  the  New  York  Association. 
It  was  organized  at  a  national  convention  of  the  associations,  held 
at  New  York  City,  November  14,  1861.  The  chairman  of  the  Inter- 
national Committee,  George  H.  Stuart,  of  Philadelphia,  became 
chairman  of  the  Christian  Commission  during  the  war.  This  com- 
mission raised  $6,000,000  in  money  and  supplies  for  the  needs  of 
the  soldiers,  and  sent  out  5,000  delegates,  who  served,  without  pay, 
an  average  of  thirty-eight  days  each  in  the  field.  Thus  was  inaugu- 
rated a  new  form  of  Christian  work. 

While  the  Continental  and  British  associations  were  tenaciously 
true  to  the  evangelical  faith,  and  while  the  American  conventions 
had  approved  the  Paris  basis,  it  was  not  yet  clear  in  America  thaF 
the  control  of  the  associations  would  be  placed  solely  in  the  hands  of 
evangelical  Christians.  In  1868,  146  associations  in  America  en- 
rolled, as  active  members,  only  those  who  were  members  of  an  evan- 
gelical church,  while  70  associations  made  no  distinction  in  the 
membership.  The  American  convention  at  Portland,  in  1869,  de- 
clared that  in  the  future  only  associations  which  limited  active 
membership  to  members  in  good  standing  in  evangelical  churches 
should  be  recognized  as  belonging  to  the  Association  movement. 
This  identified  the  Association  with  the  Evangelical  Church. 

At  the  close  of  this  period  there  were  in  America  780  associations, 
with  95,000  members.  There  was  about  an  equal  membership  in 
Europe.  Under  volunteer  leadership  the  Association  was  founded, 
the  international  work  established,  a  groat  revival  promoted,  work 
among  soldiers  carried  on,  and  the  Association  placed  on  an  evan- 
gelical basis. 

The  growing  complexity  of  the  Association,  the  fluctuating  char- 
acter of  service  by  volunteers,  and  the  multiplication  of  cities, 
created  a  demand  for  a  new  office — the  secretaryship.  The  develop- 
ment of  this  office  has  resulted  in  the  establishment  of  two  schools : 
one  at  Springfield,  Mass.,  in  1885,  and  one  at  Chicago,  111.,  in  1890, 
ioT  the  special  training  of  men  for  Association  work. 

The  first  achievement  of  this  period  in  the  United  States  was  the 
bringing  of  the  Association  back  to  a  definite  work  for  young  men 
by  young  men. 


362  CHEISTENDOM. 

Already,  under  the  leadership  of  laymen,  the  associations  had 
conceived  the  idea  of  ministering  to  the  intellectual  and  social  as 
well  as  to  the  spiritual  needs  of  young  men,  but  it  was  under  the 
leadership  of  Eobert  K.  McBurney  and  other  secretaries  that  the 
idea  of  an  all-round  work  for  young  men  was  systematized  and  de- 
veloped ;  first  in  New  York  city,  and  then  elsewhere.  It  was  through 
the  leadership  of  the  secretary  that  the  Association,  in  addition  to 
its  evangelistic  work,  became  also  an  agency  for  the  culture  of  Chris- 
tian manhood.  It  Avas  this  ideal  which  later  created  the  physical 
and  educational  departments.  To-day  there  are  77,485  members 
enrolled  in  the  gymnasiums  in  the  United  States  and  Canada,  and 
27,000  students  in  the  educational  classes.  It  was  this  form  of 
work  for  young  men,  developed  in  America,  which  was  introduced 
into  Germany  in  1883,  and  later  into  non-Christian  lands. 

The  third  development  during  this  period  was  the  building  move- 
ment. The  first  building  which  embodied  the  Association  ideal  of 
all-round  work  for  young  men  was  the  building  erected  on  the  cor- 
ner of  Twenty-third  street  and  Fourth  avenue,  in  New  York  City, 
under  the  direction  of  Mr.  McBurney,  at  a  cost  of  $487,000.  Under 
the  stimulus  of  this  example,  slowly  at  first,  but  since  1885  with 
greater  rapidity,  these  Association  buildings  have  been  erected  in  all 
parts  of  the  world,  until  to-day  there  are  359  buildings  in  the  United 
States  and  Canada,  valued  at  $20,378,480;  in  the  British  Isles,  126 
buildings,  valued  at  $3,213,960;  on  the  continent  of  Europe,  126 
buildings,  valued  at  $1,855,570;  in  other  lands,  29  buildings,  valued 
at  $874,000;  a  total  of  640  buildings,  valued  at  $26,322,010.  It  is 
interesting  to  note  that  the  American  type  of  Association  building 
has  become  dominant. 

The  fourth  characteristic  of  this  period  was  the  extension  of  the 
work  of  the  Association  to  various  classes  of  young  men.  In  1872 
work  was  begun  for  railroad  men  by  the  Cleveland  Association. 
This  became  a  department  of  the  International  Committee  in  1877. 
To-day,  in  the  United  States  and  Canada,  37,000  railroad  men  are 
associated  together  in  159  associations,  with  $1,122,650  worth  of 
property,  either  owned  or  set  aside  for  their  use,  and  to  which  the 
railroad  corporations  last  year  contributed  $195,000.  This  is  prob- 
ably the  most  successful  Christian  work  among  workingmen  carried 
on  at  the  present  time. 

lu  1887,  under  the  leadership  of  the  American  International 
Committee,  the  intercollegiate  work  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian 


YOUNG    MEN.  3G3 

Association,  that  had  been  inaugurated  at  Louisville,  Ky.,  in  1877, 
was  organized  and  carried  to  the  students  of  the  world.  While  this 
movement  does  not  embody  the  all-round  ideal  of  work  for  the  whole 
man,  it  is  the  most  successful  example  of  directly  religious  work 
among  young  men  in  the  modern  church.  From  it  has  sprung  the 
Young  Women's  Christian  Association,  the  Student  Missionary  Vol- 
unteer Movement,  and  the  World's  Student  Christian  Federation. 
This  intercollegiate  movement  enrolls  under  one  management  65,000 
young  men,  who  are  students  in  1,400  institutions  in  30  countries. 
It  has  fired  the  missionary  zeal  of  the  most  intelligent  youth  of 
Protestantism,  it  has  awakened  an  interest  in  the  study  of  the  Bible 
which  has  advanced  that  of  the  city  associations.  There  are  now  30 
Student  Association  buildings,  the  value  of  which  is  estimated  to  be 
$1,000,000.  In  1877,  Mr.  L.  D.  Wishard  became  the  first  secretary 
of  this  movement.  There  are  now  75  secretaries,  either  local  or 
international,  devoting  their  whole  time  to  work  among  students. 
In  Bible  classes  there  are  14,000  students  enrolled. 

In  addition  to  the  railroad  and  student  departments,  the  Amer- 
ican Association  has  extended  its  work  to  Indian  young  men,  colored 
young  men,  foreign-speaking  young  men,  and  recently  to  men  of  the 
army  and  navy.  A  building  for  the  use  of  the  New  York  Army 
Branch  has  been  erected  on  Governor's  Island.  Associations  are 
being  carried  on  with  many  of  the  regiments  in  the  Philippines. 
During  the  past  year  the  work  has  reached  the  troops  in  Alaska  and 
China,  and  an  attempt  is  being  made  to  reach  all  the  army  posts. 
In  the  navy  over  2,000  sailors  have  joined  the  Temperance  League 
of  the  Association,  and,  through  the  generosity  of  Miss  Helen  Gould, 
a  building  at  an  expense  of  over  $400,000  is  being  erected  near  the 
Brooklyn  Navy  Yard  for  the  exclusive  use  of  the  naval  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association. 

In  non-Christian  lands  work  is  being  carried  on  among  two 
classes  of  young  men— students  and  young  men  in  cities.  Work 
among  students  was  introduced  in  Ceylon  in  1886,  and  Japan  in 
1888.°  In  1889,  in  response  to  an  appeal  from  the  missionaries  of 
India,,  an  American  secretary  was  sent  by  the  International  Com- 
mittee to  become  secretary  of  the  Association  at  Madras.  The 
American  International  Committee  has  now  under  its  direction 
twenty  secretaries  in  India,  Ceylon,  Japan,  China  and  Brazil.  This: 
has  already  proved  a  most  fruitful  form  of  foreign  missionary  en- 
deavor.. 


364  CHRISTENDOM. 

The  Paris  Convention  defined  the  work  of  the  Association  as  work 
for  young  men.  For  many  years  the  field  of  effort  was  among  young 
men  of  sixteen  or  eighteen  years  of  age  and  upward.  A  desultory 
and  limited  work  among  boys  was  carried  on  with  a  view  to  supply- 
ing leaders  for  the  senior  department.  But  the  American  associa- 
tions, stimulated  by  modern  scientific  study,  have  awakened  to  the 
consciousness  that  their  work  should  begin  when  the  boy  is  becoming 
a  man — at  the  dawn  of  consciousness.  There  are  nearly  as  many 
boys  between  the  ages  of  twelve  and  eighteen  as  there  are  young  men 
between  the  ages  of  eighteen  and  thirty.  With  the  opening  of  the 
century  the  Association  enters  this  new  field  of  opportunity. 

The  chief  agency  in  fostering  the  work  in  the  United  States  has 
been  the  American  International  Committee,  located  at  New  York 
City.  This  committee,  of  which  Mr.  Cephas  Brainerd  was  for  twenty- 
five  years  the  chairman,  and  of  which  Dr.  Lucien  C.  Warner  is  now 
chairman,  consists  at  present  of  forty-one  gentlemen  from  different 
parts  of  the  country,  a  quorum  of  which  is  located  in  New  York  City. 
The  committee  is  chosen  at  the  biennial  conventions  of  the  associa- 
tions, and  has  in  its  employ  34  office  and  traveling  secretaries  in 
this  country,  besides  20  men  in  foreign  lands.  The  International 
Committee's  budget  for  1899  for  the  administration  of  the  home 
work  was  $129,825,  and  for  the  foreign  work,  $33,220.  The  World's 
Committee  is  located  at  Geneva,  Switzerland,  and  supervises  the 
work  of  the  associations  in  all  lands.  The  general  secretary  of  this 
committee  is  M.  Charles  Fermaud. 

The  twentieth  century  opens  with  the  Young  Men's  Christian 
Association  organized  at  6,192  points,  in  50  countries,  and  enrolling 
a  membership  of  521,077.  A  survey  of  this  field  shows  that  by  far 
the  leading  group  of  associations  is  found  in  America.  While  the 
North  American  associations  number  but  1,439,  they  enroll  49  per 
cent,  of  the  members ;  they  own  77  per  cent,  of  the  property. 

What  is  it  which  has  given  the  American  associations  this  pre- 
eminence? It  is  chiefly  due  to  the  supervising  agencies  which  are 
found  in  this  country — the  city  secretaryship,  developed  and  ex- 
emplified by  Eobert  R.  McBurney,  and  the  secretaryship  of  the  gen- 
eral agencies,  developed  under  the  leadership  of  Richard  C.  Morse. 
The  Association  secretaryship,  including  the  physical  and  educa- 
tional directorship',  is  perhaps  the  greatest  contribution  of  the  Asso- 
ciation to  modem  religious  life.  Already  there  are  682  general 
secretaries  employed  in  the  United  States  and  Canada,  79  per  cent. 


YOUNG    MEN.  365 

of  those  engaged  in  all  lands.  There  are  99  international  and  state 
secretaries,  and  262  physical  and  educational  directors. 

The  two  training  schools  in  America  enroll  nearly  one  hundred 
students  and  have  developed  a  thorough  course  of  study  for  the 
training  of  men  for  this  service.  One  in  five  of  the  secretaries  and 
directors  in  America  have  had  the  preparation  offered  at  these 
schools. 

The  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  enters  upon  this  new 
century  with  the  vigor  of  youth,  with  a  well-defined  aim,  a  widely 
extended  organization,  a  trained  leadership,  and  the  hearty  support 
of  the  Evangelical  Church.     We  can  say  with  the  old  Covenanter : 

"He  hath  not  caused  us  to  trust   in   His  name. 
And  brought  us  thus  far  to  put  us  to  shame." 

When  you  come  to  view  this  work  in  all  its  departments,  it  is  a 
remarkable  grouping  of  agencies  for  the  advancement  of  the  King- 
dom of  Christ  among  young  men.  It  has  lived  down  prejudices  and 
has  won  its  way  to  the  confidence  of  the  Christian  public,  and  its 
future  place  and  continued  usefulness  are  assured  beyond  dispute. 

The  founder  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association,  George 
Williams,  was  born  at  Asbury  Farmhouse,  near  Dulverton,  South 
England,  in  1821.  In  1841  he  went  to  London  and  became  a  clerk 
in  a  dry  goods  house  facing  St.  Paul's  churchyard,  of  which  he  is 
now  the  proprietor.  He  became  interested,  when  yet  but  twenty- 
three  years  of  age,  in  the  religious  well-being  of  the  eighty  or  more 
young  men  employed  in  this  and  other  business  houses  in  London. 
The  movement  took  definite  shape  June  6,  1844,  and  was  named  by 
Christopher  Smith,  Mr.  Williams'  room-mate.  The  constitution 
provided  that  the  Association  should  seek  to  promote  the  spiritual 
and  mental  improvement  of  young  men  engaged  in  the  drapery 
trade.  But  a  movement  so  manifestly  of  God  could  not  be  confined 
within  such  narrow  limits:  it  speedily  assumed  important  propor- 
tions. In  a  short  time  prayer-meetings  and  Bible  classes  were  be- 
oTin  in  fourteen  difi'ercnt  business  houses,  and  a  missionary  to  young 
men  was  employed  as  early  as  January,  1845.  In  1848  apartments 
were  rented  in  which  a  library,  reading-room,  restaurant,  social  par- 
lors, and  educational  classes  were  provided.  A  lecture  course  was 
established,  which  soon  became  the  most  important  lecture  platform 


366  CHRISTENDOM. 

in  London.  Thus  the  Association  was  marked  from  its  ven''  ince;^- 
tion  by  intense  religious  zeal. 

Knowledge  of  this  work,  by  and  for  young  men,  reached  America 
in  the  autumn  of  1851.  On  this  continent,  Montreal  has  the  dis- 
tinction of  organizing  the  first  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  Nov.  35,  1851;  while 
Boston  followed  on  Dec.  29,  1851.  As  the  Boston  society  gave 
character  and  direction  to  the  American  movement,  it  was  fitting 
that  the  Jubilee  Anniversary  of  the  North  American  Young  Men's 
Christian  Associations  should  be  held  there.  This  jubilee  took  place 
June  11-lG,  1901. 

A  truly  great  gathering  it  was,  and  unique  in  the  history  of  the 
continent.  The  thought  that  perhaps  most  impressed  itself  upon  us 
as  we  read  was,  what  a  revelation  we  have  here  of  the  growing  sense 
of  brotherhood  among  men  of  all  nations  in  their  efforts  to  extend 
the  kingdom  and  work  of  Christ.  Asiatic  and  African  joined  with 
Caucasian,  Slav  with  Teuton,  Frenchman  with  German,  the  Indian 
of  Asia  with  the  Indian  of  America,  in  a  visible  unity  and  in  audible 
pledges  of  brotherhood,  and  an  African  ex-slave,  Booker  T.  Wash- 
ington, apparently  received  the  greatest  personal  ovation  of  the  en- 
tire session.  Two  priests  of  the  Orthodox  Greek  Church  of  Russia 
were  present  as  authorized  delegates,  and  almost  every  Protestant 
country  under  the  stars  had  its  representatives.  A  personal  mes- 
sage from  King  Edward  VII  was  read  by  Mr.  Howard  Williams, 
son  of  the  illustrious  founder  of  the  organization,  and  its  reading 
was  followed  by  the  singing  of  "God  Save  the  King,"  and  three 
hearty  cheers  from  an  audience  of  six  thousand  people.  A  message 
from  the  Emperor  William  of  Germany  was  read  by  Pastor  Klug, 
of  Berlin,  and  the  King  of  Catholic  Italy  also  sent  a  message  wish- 
ing the  organization  God-speed.  Surely  such  things  speak  of  a 
growing  catholicity  of  feeling,  and  also  of  the  adaptability  and  use- 
fulness of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  throughout  the  world. 

"It  is  worth  while  once  in  fifty  years  to  stop  to  celebrate  a  jubilee. 
This  pause  has  been  worth  a  hundred  onslaughts.  It  has  meant 
more  for  the  young  men  of  the  world  than  a  universal  evangelistic 
campaign.  The  results  in  ten  years  will  fully  justify  this  statement, 
for  in  that  time  the  number  of  Ihe  associations  will  not  only  double, 
but  ihcir  cfheiency  will  increase  in  a  ratio  that  we  do  not  venture  to 
compute.  The  greatness  of  the  value  of  this  gathering  to  the  King- 
dom of  God  will  not  be  realized  even  by  its  delegates  within  the  year. 
A  greater  work  for  young  men  has  been  made  possible — not  only 


YOUNG    MEN.  367 

possible,  but  imperative — to  the  associations  in  every  land,  state,  city 
and  town.  The  universal  usability  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian 
Association  is  recognized  because  it  has  served  in  so  wide  a  field. 
The  jubilee  revealed  the  Association's  place  in  the  world  and  its 
moral,  social  and  economic  value.  The  fallacy  of  the  argument  that 
it  is  tethered  by  its  spiritual  purposes  has  been  thoroughly  refuted. 
It  has  been  examined  by  the  public,  business  men,  rulers  of  naUons, 
and  the  church,  and  certified  to,  not  as  a  visionist's  theory,  but  as  a 
fifty-year  demonstration  of  serviceableness  to  men  in  the  cities, 
towns,  colleges,  army,  navy,  mines,  farms,  railroads,  in  foreign  lands 
and  for  all  men,  ministering  to  the  man  and  conserving  his  entire 
well-being.  In  its  work  every  man,  poor  or  rich,  in  humble  position 
or  of  royal  rank,  finds  unlimited  and  unhampered  place  of  service 
and  personal  benefit.  This  jubilee  was  not  a  brass  band  and  tinsel 
parade  of  self-inflated  egotists;  the  great  evangelistic  meeting  of 
Sunday  afternoon,  with  4,500  men  in  attendance,  held  in  Back  Bay 
of  cultured  Boston,  with  441  men  registering  as  impressed  to  begin 
a  Christian  life,  and  the  pledge  of  over  $15,000  to  extend  Associa- 
tion work  in  foreign  lands,  proved  the  sincerity  of  a  spiritual  ambi- 
tion to  be  well  pleasing  to  God  and  of  service  to  men.  The  Young 
Men's  Christian  Association  in  every  place  will  be  forced  to  elevate 
the  standard  of  its  work  because  of  this  jubilee.  A  higher  grade  of 
life  and  service  will  be  demanded  by  the  Christian  public.  The 
Association  must  be  faithful  to  its  great  mission  as  a  world  organi- 
zation. It  can  never  again  be  content  to  simply  hold  its  own.  A 
larger  name  and  place  and  field  and  work  and  ideals  and  obligations 
are  given  to  it  from  this  time  on,  and  it  must  measure  up  to  its  new 
name  and  place.  But  the  world  will  not  care  for  the  Young  Men'6 
Christian  Association  except  as  it  contimxes  to  care  for  men." — 
"Association  Men." — Ed. 


EVANGELICAL  ALLIANCE. 


Rev.  William  D.  Grant,  Ph.D., 

NEW  YORK. 

[Christ  spoke  of  the  church  as  His  body.  Where  is  there  an  organism  so 
perfectly  and  exquisitely  organized  as  the  human  body?  Where  is  there  such 
wonderful  and  beautiful  and  effective  cooperation  as  between  the  members  of 
the  human  body?  It  seems  to  me  that  the  fact  that  Christ  called  His 
church  His  body  is  more  than  a  hint  that  there  should  be  perfect  organiza- 
tion ;  that  there  should  be  perfect  cooperation  between  members  of  that  body. 
One  hundred  eyes  do  not  make  an  organized  body.  One  hundred  hands 
do  not  make  an  organized  body.  There  must  be  the  different  members 
having  different  offices,  and  each  sustaining  and  aiding  the  others.  My 
one  pair  of  eyes  makes  my  hands  worth  more  than  one  hundred  hands 
without  eyes.  Thus  each  organ,  doing  its  proper  duty,  multiplies  the  effi- 
ciency of  all  the  other  organs.  That  is  a  truth  that  the  Christian  Chur(h 
has  yet  to  learn.  These  Christian  churches  are  competing  with  each  other 
as  a  matter  of  fact  now.  Different  denominations  are  each  watching  the 
others,  and  vying  with  each  other  to  get  ahead  of  each  other.  The  real 
principle,  unconfessed,  it  is  true,  upon  which  the  Christian  churches  are 
operating  now  in  our  cities  and  villages  is  the  principle  of  competition. 
It  is  not  the  principle  of  cooperation.  And  in  this  competition  they  do  not 
all  move  in  parallel  lines ;  they  interfere,  and  they  arrest  and  dissipate  their 
energies,  and  neutralize  one  another.  They  have  not  learned,  as  the  several 
organs  of  the  body,  how  to  cooperate,  and  hence  multiply  the  efficiency  of 
each  other  tenfold  or  fifty  or  a  hundredfold. — Josiah  Strong,  D.D. — Ed.] 
*  *  * 

Near  the  end  of  the  first  half  of  the  last  century  a  spirit  of  Chris- 
tian unity  began  to  manifest  itself  in  different  countries,  among  the 
more  prominent  evangelical  ministers.  It  was  being  more  clearly 
seen  and  felt  that  the  bonds  which  united  them  were  vastly  stronger 
than  the  questions  which  tended  to  separate  them.  There  arose  a 
longing,  therefore,  for  an  expression  of  a  unity  which  already  existed 
in  spirit  and  in  fact.  Conspicuous  among  those  who  were  desirous 
that  some  action  might  be  taken  which  would  give  tangible  evidence 
of  the  existence  of  such  a  spirit  of  oneness  among  Protestant  Chris- 
tians wore  Thomas  Chalmers,  of  Scotland;  John  Angell  James,  of 
England;  George  Fisch,  of  France;  Merle  D'Aubigne,  of  Switzer- 
land, and  William  Patton,  Samuel  H.  Cox,  Lyman  Beecher  and 
others,  of  the  United  States. 

368 


WILLIAM   PATTON,  D.D. 


ALLIANCE.  369 

In  the  year  1843  a  meeting  of  the  Congregational  Union  of  Eng- 
land gave  large  consideration  to  the  question  of  greater  unity  among 
the  various  denominations  of  Christendom.  In  that  year  ttie  Estab- 
lished Church  of  Scotland  also  appointed  a  committee  to  report  on 
the  same  matter.  The  project  afforded  an  important  element  of 
discussion  in  the  Bicentenary  of  the  Westminster  Assembly,  held  in 
Edinburgh  July  of  that  same  year.  A  conference  of  different  de- 
nominations held  in  the  Wesleyan  Centenary  Hall,  in  February, 
1845,  also  gave  to  the  movement  mature  consideration.  At  length 
a  meeting,  preliminary  to  organization,  was  held  in  Liverpool  in 
October,  1845.  At  this  meeting  were  assembled  as  many  as  two 
hundred  ministers  and  laymen,  representing  nearly  twenty  denomi- 
nations. The  "British  Quarterly"  (Vol.  Ill,  p.  527)  says  of  this 
gathering:  "We  speak  advisedly  when  we  say  that  we  regard  that 
meeting  as  presenting  a  more  mature  result  of  Christian  judgment 
and  of  Christian  affection  than  has  been  exhibited  in  the  history  of 
Christianity  since  the  age  of  inspired  teaching."  At  this  meeting, 
after  much  conference  and  prayer,  it  was  resolved  to  call  a  general 
conference  to  meet  the  following  year  in  London.  As  much  fervent 
prayer  continued,  and  widespread  discussion  obtained  through  the 
public  press,  great  enthusiasm  was  awakened,  so  that,  at  the  meet- 
ing convened  for  organization  in  Freemasons'  Hall,  in  London,  Au- 
gust 19,  184(5,  there  were  present  eight  hundred  delegates,  repre- 
senting fifty  denominations.  It  was  at  this  meeting,  which  con- 
tinued in  session  fifteen  days,  that  John  Angell  James,  in  an  ad- 
dress, credited  Dr.  William  Fatten,  of  New  York,  with  having  first 
conceived  and  siujgested  the  idea  of  the  Evangelical  Alliance.  This 
conference  and  the  preliminary  gatherings  included  many  of  the 
most  distinguished  men,  clerical  and  lay,  in  all  the  churches,  and 
some  of  the  noblest  Christian  leaders  of  their  time.  Thils  it  will  be 
seen  that  the  Evangelical  Alliance  was  formed  not  more  to  awaken 
than  to  give  expression  to  the  spirit  of  Christian  unity  already  ex- 
isting. The  object  of  the  Alliance,  as  stated  in  its  constitution, 
"shall  be  the  furtherance  of  religious  opinion,  with  the  intent  to 
manifest  and  strengthen  Christian  unity,  and  to  promote  religious 
liberty  and  cooperation  in  Christian  work,  without  interfering  with 
the  internal  affairs  of  the  different  denominations." 

The  motto  chosen  being :  Unum  corpus  sumus  in  Christo.  And 
the  working  principle  of  the  association  being :  In  essentials,  unity ; 
in  non-essentials,  charity;  in  all  things,  liberty. 


3W  CHRISTENDOM. 

More  than  a  passing  notice  should  here  be  given  to  Wm.  Patton,  whose 
name  appears  above.  Born  in  Philadelphia,  August  23,  1798,  of  Scotch-Irish 
descent,  his  father  being  Colonel  Robert  Patton,  who  came  in  his  youth  to 
this  country,  was  an  officer  in  the  Army  of  the  Revolution,  and  served  under 
Lafayette.  On  the  side  of  his  mother,  Cornelia  Bridges,  Dr.  Patton  could 
trace  his  descent  from  the  family  of  Oliver  Cromwell. 

In  his  nineteenth  year  he  united  with  the  First  Presbyterian  Church  of 
Philadelphia.  He  graduated  in  1818,  at  the  Middlebury  College,  and  studied 
theology  for  about  a  year  at  Princeton,  when  he  was  licensed  to  preach  by 
the  Addison  Congregational  Association  of  Vermont,  June,  1819.  Shortly 
thereafter  he  married  Mary  Weston,  of  New  York  City.  To  this  union  ten 
children  were  given. 

In  1820  he  took  up  his  residence  in  New  York  City,  and  at  his  own  expense 
hired  a  small  schoolhouse  on  the  edge  of  the  town,  just  north  of  Canal  street, 
in  which  to  begin  religious  services ;  having  notified  the  community,  services 
were  begun  on  the  first  Sabbath  in  March,  1820.  At  his  first  service  he  had 
an  audience  of  seven  persons.  Out  of  this  humble  beginning  has  grown  the 
Central  Presbyterian  Church,  whose  history  constitutes  so  important  a  chap- 
ter in  the  later  religious  annals  of  New  York  City. 

The  church  was  organized  January,  1821,  and  young  Patton  installed  as 
pastor.  Here  for  twelve  years  with  signal  success  he  labored.  During  this 
period  564  persons  united  with  the  church  on  confession.  Harlan  Page  was 
one  of  the  elders  of  the  church  and  superintendent  of  its  Sunday-school. 

That  Dr.  Patton's  influence  reached  beyond  his  own  congregation  appears 
in  the  fact  that  he  took  a  leading  part  in  organizing  the  American  Home 
Missionary  Society,  and  later,  in  1831,  the  Third  Presbytery  in  New  York. 
In  1834  he  accepted  an  appointment  as  secretary  of  the  Central  American 
Educational  Society.  For  the  space  of  three  years  he  gave  himself  up  to 
the  cause  of  ministerial  education  with  characteristic  energy  and  enthusiasm. 
It  was  at  this  time,  when  his  v/hole  soul  was  aglow  with  the  thought  of 
training  laborers  and  sending  them  forth  into  the  Lord's  harvest  field,  that 
he  suggested  the  location  of  a  theological  seminary  in  the  city  of  New  York. 
If  not  the  first  to  suggest  a  theological  seminary  in  the  vicinity  of  New  York, 
he  was  certainly  the  first  to  suggest  one  in  the  city  itself,  as  a  letter  written 
to  Dr.  Edwin  F.  Hatfield  in  1870  bears  witness.  And  so  enthusiastic  was 
he  respecting  the  founding  of  such  an  institution,  and  so  influential  among 
men  of  means,  that  of  the  $75,000  required  for  the  maintenance  of  the  insti- 
tution for  the  first  five  years,  personally  he  secured  $.50,000.  Here  was  the 
origin  of  the  Union  Theological  Seminary,  in  the  founding  of  which,  as  is 
manifest.  Dr.  Patton  took  no  small  part.  He  was  active  in  all  the  early 
meetings  of  the  institution,  and  for  many  years  (1836-1849)  was  a  most 
efiicient  member  of  the  board  of  directors.* 

Dr.  Patton  was  deeply  interested  also  in  the  establishment  of  the  Univer- 
sity of  the  City  of  New  York,  in  which  his  brother  Robert,  the  eminent 
Greek  scholar,  was  a  professor. 

In  his  fortieth  year  he  accepted  a  call  to  the  Spring  Street  Presbyterian 


*Vide  Dr.  George  L.  Prentiss:     "Fifty   Years  of   the   Union  Theological 
Seminary,"  pp.  12-14. 


ALLIANCE.  371 

Church,  being  installed  October  11,  1837.  This  second  pastorate  lasted  ten 
years,  and  was  not  less  remarkable  for  its  fruitfulness  than  the  first. 

From  New  York  he  went  to  New  Haven,  where  he  served  the  Hammond 
Street  Congregational  Church,  engaging  at  the  same  time  in  literary  work. 

He  frequently  crossed  the  ocean,  and  spent  a  good  deal  of  his  time  in 
England,  a  warm  friendship  existing  between  him  and  John  Angell  James, 
of  Birmingham^  who  once  stated  publicly  that  for  the  character  and  success 
of  his  ministry  he  had  been  more  indebted  to  the  early  influence  of  his 
friend  Dr.  Patton  than  to  any  other  human  cause. 

Dr.  Patton  was  a  firm  believer  in  spiritual  seasons  of  religious  awakening, 
and  labored  earnestly,  especially  by  republishing  President  Edwards'  and 
Mr.  Finney's  writings  on  the  subject,  in  order  if  possible  to  promote  such 
revivals  in  Great  Britain.  That  he  was  a  man  of  strong  catholicity  of  spirit, 
and  took  a  deep  interest  in  everything  looking  toward  closer  union  among  the 
followers  of  Christ,  is  witnessed  to  by  a  letter,  of  March  28,  184u,  addressed 
to  his  friend  John  Angell  James.  In  this  letter  Dr.  Patton  says :  "It  appears 
to  me  that  the  time  cannot  be  distant  when  it  will  be  most  proper  to  call  a 
convention  of  delegates  from  the  evangelical  churches  to  meet  in  London  for 
the  purpose  of  setting  forth  the  great  essential  truths  in  which  they  are 
agreed.  I  know  of  no  known  object  which  would  awaken  deeper  interest 
than  such  a  convention.  It  would  command  the  attendance  of  some  of  our 
strongest  men  from  all  evangelical  denominations,  and  the  result  would  be 
a  statement  of  views  which  would  have  a  most  blessed  effect.'"  (See  page  124 
of  Dr.  Prentiss'  book  for  entire  letter.) 

Mr.  James,  in  publishing  this  letter,  added:  "The  subject  of  this  letter 
is  of  momentous  consequence ;  it  presents  a  splendid  conception  of  the  human 
mind."  We  have  already  seen  that  that  letter  was  not  without  fruit,  viz., 
the  Evangelical  Alliance  itself. 

Dr.  Patton  was  in  full  sympathy  with  the  reformatory  spirit  of  the  age. 
Strong  anti-slavery  principles  came  to  him  as  a  heritage  from  his  father, 
who  declined  an  offer  from  President  Madison  to  make  him  Postmaster- 
General  because  unwilling  to  remove  his  family  to  a  slave-holding  community. 
He  was  a  man  of  large  and  generous  views,  strong  in  his  convictions  of  right 
and  duty,  as  well  as  bold  in  asserting  them  ;  a  natural  enemy  of  wrong,  op- 
pression and  intolerance,  and  one  of  the  earliest  and  ablest  advocates  of 
temperance  reform  ;  an  ardent  patriot,  whether  at  home  or  abroad,  and  a 
firm  believer  in  the  providential  mission  and  destiny  of  the  American  people. 
In  the  days  of  his  power,  and  this  continued  with  him  even  into  old  age.  Dr. 
Patton  was  a  very  earnest  and  effective  preacher.  The  arguments,  illustra- 
tions and  applications  of  his  discourses  were  alike  fitted  to  make  deep  and 
lasting  impressions.  He  was  also  a  writer  of  considerable  note.  In  18."W  he 
recast  an  English  commentary  called  "The  Cottage  Bible,"  published  in  two 
volumes;  of  this  publication  nearly  200.000  copies  were  eold  before  his  death. 
Then  followed  "The  Cottage  Testament,"  "The  Christian  Psalmist,"  "The 
Judgment  of  Jerusalem  and  Jesus  of  Nazareth,"  "Tlie  People's  Bible  Illus- 
trated by  Bible  Characters."  etc. 

Dr.  Patton  died  at  New  Haven,  September  9.  1879.  in  the  eighty-Heoond 
year  of  his  age. 


372  CHRISTENDOM. 

The  association  thus  established  set  before  itself  the  task  of  pro- 
moting brotherly  love,  religious  liberty.  Sabbath  observance,  Chris- 
tian education,  and  of  being  a  bond  of  union  between  evangelical 
Christians  of  all  churches  and  of  all  lands.  This  has  been  done 
through  correspondence,  coooperation,  conferences,  united  action, 
and  united  prayer. 

Branch  national  organizations  since  then  have  been  formed  in 
Scotland,  Ireland,  United  States,  Portugal,  Canada,  France,  Swit- 
zerland, Germany,  Brazil,  Holland,  Denmark,  Italy,  Spain,  Turkey, 
Korea,  Greece,  Syria,  Egypt,  South  Africa,  Japan,  India,  China, 
Persia,  East  Indies,  West  Indies,  Norway  and  Sweden,  New  Zea- 
land, Australia,  Palestine,  Chili,  Mexico,  etc.  Indeed  there  is  now 
scarcely  a  country  without  its  auxiliary  of  the  Alliance.  The  Brit- 
ish branch  alone,  however,  owns  a  building  for  its  offices,  in  London, 
and  publishes  a  magazine,  "Evangelical  Christendom." 

The  organization  of  the  United  States  branch  took  place  January 
30,  1867,  in  the  Bible  House,  New  York  City.  The  Hon.  William 
E.  Dodge  was  made  president  and  continued  to  devote  wisdom, 
effort  and  financial  support  to  the  enterprise  unstintedly  till  his 
death  in  1883.  The  Hon.  John  Jay  was  elected  his  successor,  but 
resigned  in  January,  1885,  when  William  E.  Dodge,  the  honored  son 
of  the  first  president,  was  elected,  and  has  since  then  continued  to 
perform  the  duties  of  the  office  with  great  efficiency  and  acceptance. 

Many,  more  rash  than  wise,  predicted  a  short  career  for  the  new 
organization,  but  it  has  far  outlived  those  who  prophesied  its  failure, 
and  has  accomplished  for  Christian  liberty  alone  much  more  than  its 
most  sanguine  founders  could  have  hoped.  "There  is  no  doubt," 
said  a  shrewd  observer  of  religious  events,  "that  to  the  Evangelical 
Alliance  is  very  largely  due  the  improved  relations  now  existing  be- 
tween the  different  sections  of  the  Christian  Church  as  compared 
with  what  they  were  fifty  years  ago." 

The  Week  of  United  Prayer,  in  a  sense,  was  begun  by  members  of 
the  Alliance  shortly  after  the  formation  of  the  British  branch.  But 
in  1858  a  few  missionaries  of  different  denominational  schools  held 
a  three  days'  meeting  for  prayer  in  Lodiana,  in  India.  Afterward 
they  sent  home  the  suggestion  that  all  the  Christian  world  be  re- 
quested to  unite  annually  in  a  week  of  prayer.  The  Alliance  readily 
published  the  call,  and  ever  since  has  prepared  and  sent  forth  the 
programme  of  topics  to  all  Christendom.  And  not  till  eternity  will 
it  be  known  how  much  has  been  achieved  for  the  Kingdom  of  God 


ALLIANCE.  373 

and  the  spread  of  evangelical  truth  through  the  general  response  to 
its  yearly  call  to  united  prayer. 

In  all,  ten  international  conferences  of  the  Alliance  have  been 
held— in  London  in  1851 ;  Paris,  1855 ;  Berlin,  1857 ;  Geneva,  1861 ; 
Amsterdam,  1867;  New  York,  1873;  Basle,  1879;  Copenhagen, 
1884 — though  at  that  time  there  was  no  branch  of  the  Alliance  in 
Sweden,  yet  Dr.  Philip  Schaff  remarked  that  the  success  of  the 
gathering  was  the  greatest  triumph  which  the  organization  had  so 
far  achieved;  Florence,  1891,  and  finally  the  Jubilee  in  London  in 
1896,  June  29-July  4,  at  which  there  were  2,500  delegates  present. 

Besides  guiding  the  currents  of  thought  and  quickening  the  exer- 
cise of  faith  throughout  the  world  the  Evangelical  Alliance  has  been 
most  practically  useful  in  averting  and  ameliorating  religious  perse- 
cution and  oppression  from  time  to  time  in  various  parts  of  the 
globe.  The  Alliance  found  one  of  the  most  trying  obstacles  to  its 
mission  of  good-will  in  the  restraints  placed  upon  religious  liberty 
which  fifty  years  ago  were  in  force  in  most  lands  where  the  Roman 
Catholic  or  Greek  churches  were  dominant,  as  well  as  in  all  Moham- 
medan, and  even  in  some  Protestant  countries.  To  a  very  consid- 
erable extent  that  evil  has  been  abated,  and  in  certain  countries 
wholly  removed.  Within  the  lifetime  of  the  Alliance  men  have  been 
imprisoned  in  Italy  for  possessing  the  Bible,  their  release  being  se- 
cured through  the  efforts  of  the  Alliance.  Now  such  a  thing  in  Italy 
is  impossible,  as  the  King  himself,  during  the  great  conference  of 
the  Alliance  in  Florence  in  1891,  sent  a  message  of  congratulation 
to  the  assembly.  That  gathering  was  in  itself  a  complete  demon- 
stration to  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  of  the  oneness  of  Protest- 
antism. 

Thus  by  united  action  in  the  way  of  remonstrance  and  petition, 
and  by  creating  a  wholesome  and  strong  public  opinion,  religious 
liberty  has  been  promoted  in  many  countries,  especially  in  S[)ain, 
Austria,  Sweden,  Turkey,  Russia,  Italy,  Japan,  Greece,  Hungary, 
Egypt,  Peru,  Basutoland,  Persia,  etc.  In  making  this  relief  effec- 
tive a  vast  deal  of  labor  has  been  needful,  labor  which,  in  the  nature 
of  the  case,  can  never  be  tabulated.  Indeed,  the  efforts  put  forth 
by  the  Association  to  free  the  persecuted  from  despotism  and  mis- 
representation would  fill  a  volume.  The  following  statement  by 
Mr.  B.  P.  Field,  general  secretary  of  the  Alliance  in  Great  Britain, 
will  be  sufficient  to  show  v^hat  course  frequently  it  is  needful  to  fol- 
low: 


374  CHRISTENDOM. 

"His  Majesty,  the  King  of  Portugal,  yesterday  received,  at  Buck- 
ingham Palace,  a  deputation  of  the  Evangelical  Alliance  with  refer- 
ence to  the  invasion  on  religious  liberty  in  Lisbon.  Lord  Kinnaird, 
vice-president,  and  Mr.  John  Paton,  honorary  treasurer,  attended 
on  behalf  of  the  council,  and  presented  a  petition  which  stated  that 
the  Evangelical  Alliance  is  a  union,  not  of  churches,  but  of  indi- 
vidual Christians  all  over  the  world,  allied  together  on  the  basis  of  a 
common  faith  in  Christ  and  their  common  love  to  Him,  and  includ- 
ing representatives  of  all  the  churches;  that  this  Alliance  has  been 
in  operation  since  1846,  and  that  it  has  year  by  year,  during  the  last 
fifty-four  years,  striven  for  the  establishment  of  religious  liberty  in 
all  parts  of  the  world,  believing  that  it  is  the  principle  established  in 
our  very  nature  and  affirmed  also  in  the  Word  of  God,  that  each  man 
should  be  at  liberty  to  approach  and  to  worship  his  Creator  without 
hindrance;  that  early  in  the  present  year,  while  the  various  Protes- 
tant congregations  in  Lisbon  were  assembled  in  the  Week  of  Prayer, 
arranged  for  all  countries  by  the  Evangelical  Alliance,  their  repre- 
sentatives were  summoned  before  the  criminal  judge  in  Lisbon,  and 
were  told  that  they  must  cease  at  once  their  religious  meetings  on 
pain  of  prosecution;  that  subsequently  the  Presbyterian  native  con- 
gregation, as  well  as  the  meeting  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian 
Association,  had  been  stopped  by  the  police ;  that  we  have  heard  that 
some  assurance  has  been  since  given  by  the  Civil  Governor  of  Lisbon 
that  the  interruption  of  the  services  by  the  police  would  not  be  per- 
sisted in ;  that  the  Evangelical  Alliance  would  feel  most  grateful  to 
the  King  if  only  he  would  consent  to  indorse  such  a  promise  for  the 
future,  not  limiting  its  operation  to  Lisbon,  and  that  he  would  of  his 
free  grace  and  sovereign  mercy  grant  to  all  Christians  throughout 
his  dominions  full  liberty  of  religious  worship  in  the  same  manner 
as  has  long  been  bestowed  upon  all  Roman  Catholics  throughout  the 
British  Empire ;  that  the  Evangelical  Alliance,  in  conclusion,  desires 
earnestly  to  assure  His  Majesty  of  the  sincere  gratitude  which  ex- 
ists in  the  hearts  of  all  English  Protestants  for  every  indication  of 
raercy  and  clemency  which  has  been  already  evinced  by  His  Most 
Gracious  Majesty. 

"His  Majesty  received  the  deputation  most  graciously.  He  said 
he  was  glad  to  welcome  the  council  of  the  Evangelical  Alliance,  and 
to  tell  them  that  the  matter  had  been  brought  under  his  notice  by 
their  letter.  He  also  added  that  he  at  once  ordered  the  authorities 
to  cease  further  undue  interference.     He  was  very  pleased  to  assure 


ALLIANCE.  375 

the  members  of  the  Evangelical  Alliance  that  it  was  his  distinct 
wish  that  religious  liberty  should  be  granted  to  all  Protestant  Chris- 
tions  throughout  his  dominions,  and  that  it  was  his  determination 
to  enforce  this  rule.  He  also  said  that  he  had  now  given  the  neces- 
sary orders  to  ensure  this. 

"The  deputation,  on  behalf  of  all  Protestant  Christians,  expressed 
their  sincere  gratitude  to  the  King  for  his  kindness  and  the  gracious- 
ness  of  his  promise,  and  for  the  very  friendly  spirit  which  he  had 
shown  to  the  English." 

The  Papal  newspapers  in  Portugal,  of  course,  were  angry  that  the 
King  should  have  had  anything  to  do  with  Protestants,  and  are  deny- 
ing that  any  such  action  took  place. 

Again,  by  emphasizing,  in  statements  of  doctrine,  only  essentials 
in  which  all  are  agreed,  by  collecting  statistics  which  exhibit  the 
religious  condition  and  progress  of  the  whole  world,  and  by  discover- 
ing the  signs  of  the  times  in  the  discussion  of  advanced  measures, 
these  cooperating  bodies  have  introduced  ameliorating  and  unifying 
influences  among  widely  differing  churches,  resulting  in  greatly  in- 
creased cooperation  'and  fraternity  in  Christian  intercourse  and 
work.  There  has  been,  therefore,  throughout  the  history  and  work 
of  the  Alliance  an  ever-growing  sentiment  of  comity  among  all  the 
denominations,  leading,  gradually,  to  many  important  modifications, 
growing  unity  and  mutual  respect  throughout  all  their  ranks.  The 
Association  has  thus  accomplished  in  the  cause  of  religious  liberty 
and  brotherly  love  much  more  than  its  early  friends  and  promoters 
ever  dreamed  of  accomplishing.  But  though  much  has  been  accom- 
plished, never  was  there  greater  need  for  fraternity  and  cooperation 
on  the  part  of  all  who  hold  the  truth  in  simplicity  and  sincerity. 
For  it  is  needful  to-day,  as,  perhaps,  in  no  former  time,  to  seek  to 
realize  in  actual  intercourse  that  living  and  essential  union  which 
binds  all  true  believers  in  one  fellowship  and  in  one  service. 


RESCUE  WORK, 


Kate  Waller  Barrett,  M.D., 

WASHINGTON. 

[In  our  time  it  is  the  habit  to  denounce  the  cities  and  to  speak  of  them 
as  the  foci  of  all  wickedness.  Is  it  not  time  for  some  one  to  tell  the  other 
side  of  the  story,  and  to  say  that  the  city  is  the  heaven  of  practical  help- 
fulness? Look  at  the  embowered  and  fountained  parks,  where  the  invalids 
may  come  and  be  refreshed ;  the  Bowery  Mission,  through  which  annually 
over  100,000  come  to  get  bread  for  this  life  and  bread  for  the  life  to  come ; 
all  the  pillows  of  that  institution  are  under  the  blessing  of  Him  who  had  not 
where  to  lay  His  head ;  the  free  schools,  where  the  most  impoverished  are 
educated;  the  hospitals  for  broken  bones;  the  homes  for  the  restoration  of 
intellects  astray  ;  the  orphan  home,  father  and  mother  to  all  who  come  under 
its  benediction  ;  the  midnight  missions,  which  pour  midnoon  upon  the  dark- 
ened ;  the  Prison  Reform  Association,  the  Houses  of  Mercy,  the  infirmaries, 
the  Sheltering  Arms,  the  Bethesda  Mission,  the  aid  societies,  the  industrial 
schools,  the  Sailors'  Snug  Harbor,  the  foundling  asylums,  and  the  free  dis- 
pensaries. 

It  would  take  a  sermon  three  weeks  long  to  do  justice  to  the  mighty  things 
which  our  cities  are  doing  for  the  unfortunate  and  the  lost.  Do  not  say 
that  Christianity  in  our  cities  is  all  show,  and  talk  and  genuflexion,  and 
eacred  noise.  You  have  been  so  long  looking  at  the  hand  of  cruelty,  and  the 
hand  of  theft,  and  the  hand  of  fi*aud,  and  the  hand  of  outrage,  that  you  have 
not  sufficiently  appreciated  the  hand  of  help,  stretched  forth  from  the  doors 
and  windows  and  churches,  and  from  merciful  institutions — the  Christ-like 
hand,  the  cherubic  hand,  "the  hands  under  the  wings." 

There  is  a  kind  of  religion  in  our  day  that  my  text  rebukes.  There  are 
men  and  women  spending  their  time  in  delectation  over  their  saved  state, 
going  about  from  prayer-meeting  to  prayer-meeting,  and  from  church  to 
church,  telling  how  happy  they  are.  But  show  them  a  subscription  paper, 
or  ask  them  to  go  and  visit  the  sick,  or  tell  them  to  reclaim  a  wanderer,  or 
Bf)eak  out  for  some  unpopular  Christian  enterprise,  and  they  have  bronchitis, 
or  stitch  in  the  side,  or  sudden  attacks  of  grip.  Their  religion  is  all  wing, 
and  no  hand.  They  can  fly  heavenward,  but  they  cannot  reach  out  earth- 
ward. 

The  highest  type  of  religion  says  little  about  itself,  but  is  busy  for  God 
and  in  helping  to  the  heavenly  shore  the  crew  and  passengers  of  this  ship- 
wrecked planet.  Such  people  are  busy  now  up  the  dark  lanes  of  our  cities, 
and  all  through  the  mountain  glens,  and  down  in  the  quarries  where  the 
sunlight  has  never  visited,  and  amid  the  rigging,  helping  to  take  in  another 
reef  before  the  Caribbean  whirlwind. — T.  De  Witt  Talmaqe. — Ed.] 

376 


JERRY    McAULEY. 


RESCUE    WOliK.  377 

It  is  but  within  the  last  half  century  that  an  attempt  has  been 
made  in  any  degree  commensurate  with  the  requirements  of  the 
case  to  reach  and  to  rescue  what  is  frequently  called  the  submerged 
classes.  This  rescue  work,  while  receiving  the  cordial  sympathy 
and  support  of  the  Christian  Church,  as  it  should,  originated  in  the 
prayerful  thought,  as  it  is  now  in  the  hands  and  on  the  hearts,  of 
those  who  themselves  have  known  the  bitterness  and  the  foulness  of 
sin. 

It  was  recognized  that  the  church  through  its  ordinary  services 
was  incapable  of  reaching  the  very  classes  which  most  needed  the 
sympathy  and  the  support  of  Christian  love  and  helpfulness.  In 
order  to  gain  their  confidence  and  win  them  from  their  evil  ways 
it  was  not  enough  that  the  church  should  open  its  doors  and  say 
"Come  in";  the  Master's  call  to  "go  out  into  the  highways  and 
hedges  and  compel  them  to  come  in"  must  be  obeyed. 

As  Dr.  Pierson  says  in  his  "Forward  Movements,"  these  brethren 
of  ours  "are  in  a  pit  so  deep  that  the  common  means  of  grace  do  not 
avail ;  a  special  life-line  let  down  to  their  level  and  fitted  to  grapple 
them  fast,  a  special  message  and  mission  with  peculiar  love  for  the 
lost  and  passion  for  souls,  seem  needful  for  this  sort  of  work.  The 
church  has  often  been  charged  with  indifference,  where  perhaps  the 
real  difficulty  is  inadeqiMcy." 

In  the  conduct  of  this  work,  the  pui-pose  has  been  not  to  set  up  a 
rival  to  the  church,  but  to  act  as  the  church's  auxiliary  and  represen- 
tative ;  and,  indeed,  many  of  those  who  have  been  won  from  the  paths 
of  folly  and  sin,  in  the  rescue  mission,  have  become  the  church's 
most  earnest  and  efficient  helpers  in  its  regular  work. 

Every  city  of  any  importance  in  the  United  States  to-day  has  one 
or  more  resciie  missions  in  its  most  unsavory  localities.  This  is  more 
particularly  true,  of  course,  of  the  larger  centres  of  population,  such 
as  New  York,  Philadelphia,  Chicago,  Boston,  Louisville,  San  Fran- 
cisco, etc. 

The  missions  of  Boston  deserve  special  mention,  owing  to  the  fact 
that  the  first  mission  for  men  and  women,  as  well  as  the  first  rescue 
mission  for  women  only,  was  located  there.  According  to  the  official 
directory  of  that  city,  the  Boston  North  End  Mission  was  established 
in  1867 ;  but  from  other  sources  we  learn  that  a  mission  work  was 
begun  previously  to  that  date.  For  the  last  forty  years,  wo  may 
safely  sav,  this  mission  has  played  an  important  part  in  the  ph.lan- 
tliropic  and  rescue  work  of  Boston.    Besides  the  daily  mission  acrr- 


378  CHEISTENDOM. 

ices  it  has  a  rescue  home  for  women  and  another  home  for  the  care 
of  dependent  children. 

During  the  history  of  this  mission  many  notahle  men  and  women 
have  been  associated  with  it  in  various  official  capacities.  In  its  in- 
fancy it  received  the  active  support  of  Eben  Tourjee,  who  was  pres- 
ident of  the  board  of  managers,  and  who  afterward  founded  the 
New  England  Conservatory  of  Music.  He  was  followed  in  office 
by  Ezra  Farnsworth;  Silas  Pierce,  Jr.,  was  president  in  1878,  while 
at  the  present  time  a  member  of  the  same  Pierce  family,  and  one 
who  bears  the  same  name,  holds  this  office. 

One  of  the  earliest  friends  of  the  work  was  William  F.  Davis,  who 
when  a  junior  at  Harvard  in  1865  first  became  interested,  and 
after  being  chaplain  of  the  City  Almshouse  he  was  superintendent 
of  the  mission  in  1875-78.  The  mission  is  still  conducted  on  the 
original  lines,  and  is  prospering  under  the  excellent  management  of 
the  Eev.  L.  D.  Younkin. 

New  York  contains  the  greatest  number  of  missions  of  any  city 
in  the  Union.  Missions  for  all  "sorts  and  conditions  of  men,"  as 
well  as  women,  have  here  been  inaugurated.  When  one  remembers 
that  much  of  this  wonderful  rescue  mission  work,  which  is  sufficient 
in  itself  to  fill  page  after  page  of  the  Charities  Directory,  came  from 
the  inspiration  of  one  man's  life,  and  he  an  ex-convict,  gambler  and 
drunkard,  we  are  impressed  with  the  truth  that  God  frequently 
takes  the  "weak  things  of  the  world  to  confound  the  mighty." 

Jerry  McAuley  needs  no  other  or  better  monument  to  perpetuate 
his  work  and  his  worth  than  the  Water  Street  (opened  in  1872)  and 
the  Cremorne  missions.  His  consecrated  life  and  methods  of  work 
continue  to  be  the  encouragement  and  inspiration  and  ideal  of  all 
who  are  engaged  in  similar  effort;  as  what  God  did  for  him,  and 
through  him  for  the  abandoned  wrecks  of  humanity,  may  be  repeated 
in  the  case  of  any  other  man  who  surrenders  himself  as  fully  to  the 
service  of  God  in  the  saving  of  men. 

Space  fails  us  to  mention  all  the  missions  laboring  in  New  York 
City,  but  one  of  the  most  important  is  the  Bowery  Mission,  undef  the 
auspices  of  the  "Christian  Herald,"  attached  to  which  is  a  restaurant 
and  a  lodging  house  for  men.  Some  of  the  other  missions  arc  the 
Galilean,  under  the  auspices  of  the  Calvary  P.  E.  Church ;  St.  Bar- 
tholomew's, under  St.  Bartholomew's  P.  E.  Church;  the  Florence 
Mission  (on  Bleccker  Street),  established  by  Mr.  Charles  N.  Crit- 
ienton  about  eighteen  years  ago;  the  Doyer  Street  Mission,  in  the 


RESCUE    WORK.  379 

heart  of  Chinatown,  under  the  auspices  of  the  New  York  Rescue 
Band;  the  Seamen's  Bethel,  the  Mariners'  Church,  and  many  others. 
There  are  also  a  number  of  Roman  Catholic  missions  which  are  ren- 
dering excellent  service. 

One  could  not  spend  a  week  in  a  more  profitable  manner  than  in 
visiting  the  various  rescue  missions  of  New  York  City,  especially 
if  he  were  skeptical  regarding  what  the  grace  of  God  is  capable  of 
doing  for  the  men  and  the  women  who  are  morally  and  socially 
abandoned. 

The  Sunday  Breakfast  Association  of  Philadelphia  was  the  father 
of  the  Breakfast  Association  movement.  Its  meetings  are  renowned 
among  Christian  workers  as  being  the  most  successful  and  inspiring 
of  their  kind.  Every  Sunday  morning  a  large  number  of  tramps, 
homeless  and  outcast  men,  are  served  a  comfortable  breakfast,  to 
which  is  added  for  the  inner  man  helpful  addresses  and  Bible  in- 
struction. This,  with  the  Old  Ship  Mission  and  many  other  similar 
organizations,  makes  the  rescue  mission  work  of  Philadelphia  note- 
worthy. 

The  Central  Union  Mission  occupies  one  of  the  most  conspicuous 
locations  in  the  city  of  Washington,  and  is  well  known  to  all  visitors 
to  the  Capital  who  are  interested  in  religious  work.  It  has  proved 
a  veritable  lighthouse  for  man}'^  a  storm-tossed  mariner  on  life's 
troubled  sea.  Among  other  means  employed  in  ministering  to  and 
reaching  the  people  it  maintains  a  restaurant,  and  uses  a  Gospel 
wagon  in  the  conduct  of  its  street  services. 

Rescue  work  is  carried  on  also  in  Atlanta,  Cincinnati,  Louisville, 
Richmond,  Chicago,  Jersey  City  and  numerous  other  centres  of  pop- 
ulation throughout  the  Union.  Nothing  need  be  said  here  respecting 
the  rescue  and  slum  work  of  the  Salvation  Army,  as  the  work  of 
that  organization  is  presented  in  a  separate  paper. 

A  work  that  has  been  most  successful  in  establishing  branches  not 
only  throughout  the  United  States,  but  also  in  foreign  lands,  is  the 
Penal  Mission,  under  the  supervision  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Ferguson. 
The  headquarters  of  this  movement  is  in  Los  Angeles,  Cal.,  the 
various  branches  of  which  now  number  about  twenty. 

The  medical  rescue  work,  established  by  the  Seventh  Day  Advent- 
ists  under  the  direction  of  Dr.  J.  B.  Kellogg,  of  Battle  Creek,  is 
accomplishing  marvellous  results.  Of  this  mission  there  are  about 
forty  branches  in  the  various  states. 

The  National  Florence  Crittenton  Mission  is  a  movement  which 


380  CHRISTENDOM. 

was  begun  eighteen  years  ago  in  New  York  City,  designed  particu- 
larly to  reach  and  to  rescue  unfortunate  and  erring  girls.  Mr. 
Charles  N.  Crittenton,  a  wealthy  business  man  of  that  city,  having 
been  led,  by  the  death  of  his  little  daughter  Florence,  four  years  old, 
to  consecrate  his  life  and  means  to  God,  became  especially  interested 
in  the  apparently  helpless  condition  of  wayward  girls,  and  was  led 
to  open  a  home  for  them  in  Bleecker  Street,  where  gospel  services 
are  held  every  night  in  the  year.  While  previously  there  had  been  a 
few  small  rescue  homes,  or  refuges  for  first  offenders,  as  far  as 
known,  this  is  the  first  home  of  its  kind  ever  opened  to  welcome  the 
depraved  and  abandoned  classes.  Under  Mr.  Crittenton's  personal 
supervision  the  work  became  eminently  successful,  and  so  widely 
known  that  calls  have  come  from  all  over  the  country  for  his  services 
to  aid  in  establishing  similar  institutions.  So  that  the  work  begun 
in  a  very  humble  way  and  in  dependence  upon  God  alone  has  now 
branches  scattered  across  the  entire  continent. 

As  the  work  developed,  the  need  became  manifest  for  some  specific 
and  central  organization,  under  the  guidance  of  which  all  these 
homes  should  be  operated.  The  National  Government  was  applied  to 
for  a  charter,  which  was  not  only  readily  granted,  but  also  an  appro- 
priation made  to  help  maintain  and  enlarge  the  work.  Under  the 
stimulus  of  this  generous  cooperation  on  the  part  of  Congress  the 
work  has  grown  to  remarkable  proportions.  During  the  past  year 
more  than  three  thousand  street  girls  have  been  resident  in  these 
homes  under  the  saving  influence  and  training  of  consecrated  Chris- 
tian womanhood.  There  are  now  about  sixty  such  homes  and  mis- 
sions in  the  United  States;  one  in  Tokio,  Japan,  and  one  is  just 
being  established  in  Marseilles,  France.  The  fundamental  principle 
in  the  conduct  of  these  homes  is  that  reformation  of  conduct  is  pos- 
eible  only  through  regeneration  of  character. 

Besides  the  Florence  Crittenton,  there  are  a  large  number  of  in- 
etitutions  throughout  the  country  that  are  doing  a  similar  work  in 
a  most  praiseworthy  manner,  having  the  confidence  and  receiving  the 
support  and  cooperation  of  the  Christian  public.  There  are  several 
such  in  New  York  City,  such  as  the  Magdalene  Home,  established 
T833;  the  House  of  Mercy,  established  1855;  the  Wetmore  Home, 
established  1865,  and  the  Door  of  Hope,  established  about  fifteen 
years  ago. 

A  number  of  such  rescue  homes  have  been  opened  under  the  aus- 
pices of  the  W.  C.  T.  U.  in  different  states  and  cities,  and  there  is 


RESCUE    WORK.  381 

not  a  state  in  the  Union  where  some  sort  of  rescue  work  is  not  in 
operation.  During  the  last  quarter  of  a  centuiy  a  number  of  unique 
movements  have  been  inaugurated  for  the  purpose  of  reaching  the 
non-churchgoing  masses,  some  of  whose  methods  may  be  regarded 
as  sensational,  and  their  efficacy  questioned  by  the  ordinary  church- 
man, but  they  are  sufficiently  justified  in  view  of  the  fact  that  they 
seem  to  be  honored  of  God,  and  avail  for  the  salvation  of  men. 

Activity  in  mission  work  in  the  great  centres  of  population  is 
quite  as  manifest  in  foreign  lands  as  it  is  in  our  own.  While  the 
McAU  Mission  in  France  was  not  founded  with  the  purpose  of 
reaching  the  same  classes  as  are  found  in  the  slums  of  the  great 
cities,  but  rather  to  restore  the  faith  of  those  who  had  drifted  from 
the  Catholic  Church  into  indifference  or  infidelity,  yet  the  lines  of 
work  are  practically  the  same. 

Everyone  who  knows  anything  about  the  religious  work  being 
carried  on  in  Loudon  for  the  unchurched  masses,  has  heard  of  the 
efforts  of  Mr.  F.  N.  Charrington,  of  the  Mile-End  Road  Mission. 
Mr.  Charrington  is  the  man  who  gave  up  a  lucrative  business  en- 
terprise in  order  to  engage  in  mission  work,  and  when  someone 
playfully  asked  him  how  much  a  year  he  received  for  wearing  the 
'Tjlue  ribbon"  he  replied  that  he  did  not  receive  any  money  reward, 
but  on  the  contrary  paid  £20,000  a  year  for  the  privilege.  This 
amount  he  would  have  been  able  to  make  annually  had  he  continued 
in  the  brewing  business.  There  is  another  mission  in  London  wor- 
thy of  special  note  called  the  "Regions  Beyond,''  the  latter  having 
several  branches  of  work  other  than  the  daily  mission  services,  such 
as  sewing,  educational  and  Bible  study  classes.  This  work  has 
been  successful  in  a  large  degree  in  the  regeneration  of  the  White- 
chapel  district.  Time  would  fail  us  to  mention  the  re.=cue  work 
being  done  in  Switzerland,  particularly  at  Geneva,  and  also  in  the 
larger  cities  of  Germany,  where  Le  Societe  des  Amies  de'Jeune  Fille 
— which  has  branches  all  over  Europe  and  America — does  a  noble 
work  in  directing  friendless  young  girls  when  travelling  from  place 
to  place,  and  aiding  them  in  securing  suitable  employment  or  lodg- 
ing. 

Could  any  service  be  more  honoring  to  our  Lord,  or  more  likely 
to  win  the  indifferent  and  the  wayward  from  their  peaceloss  paths, 
than  the  self-sacrifice  of  those  who,  day  after  day  and  night  after 
night,  year  in  and  year  out,  keep  open  house,  give  encouragement 
and  counsel,  and,  frequently,  provide  food,  lodging,  work  or  doth- 


382  CHRISTENDOM. 

ing  lor  those  who  have  been  battered  and  bruised  by  misfortune  or 
sin?  Such  a  work  requires  more  than  the  artistic  vision  that  sees 
an  angel  in  the  "dull,  cold  marble."  To  see  the  angel  in  the 
gnarled,  the  besotted,  the  drunken  and  the  vicious  requires  a  divine 
illumination — the  Christ-spirit — and  to  bring  that  angel  forth  a 
faith  unfaltering,  a  patience  persistent  and  a  love  unwearying. 
May  the  good  Lord  give  us  such  a  vision  as  shall  enable  us  to  see 
Himself,  not  alone  in  the  well-clad  and  refined,  but  in  every  man 
we  meet,  however  degraded  and  begrimed !  Only  thus  will  our 
hearts  warm  to  our  work,  and  "the  torrent  that  swept  the  valley  shall 
be  led  to  turn  the  mill." 

When  David,  future  King  of  Israel,  had  escaped  to  the  cave  of 
Adullam,  those  who  joined  him — besides  his  father's  household — 
were  such  as  were  in  distress,  in  debt  or  discontented;  in  all  about 
four  hundred  desperate  men,  who  had  nothing  to  lose  and  everything 
to  gain.  By  personal  contact  with  the  kingly  son  of  Jesse  they 
gained  something  of  his  greatness  and  eventually  became  sharers 
in  and  ornaments  of  his  kingdom.  Now,  into  the  kingdom  of  "great 
David's  greater  Son"  there  have  fled  for  refuge  the  harlot  Rahab, 
the  thief  on  the  cross,  the  licentious  Corinthians  (1  Cor.  vi,  9-11), 
the  John  Bunyans,  the  Jerry  McAuleys;  a  host  which  no  man  can 
number  has  been  gathered  from  the  lowest  slums  and  the  deepest 
sinks  of  sin ;  these  having  adorned  the  doctrine  of  God  their  Saviour 
here,  shall  adorn  His  diadem  yonder.  "Perchance  the  convict  from 
the  galleys  may  stand  above  the  hermit  from  his  cell."  How  fre- 
quently in  our  rescue  meetings  do  we  hear  such  a  testimony  as  the 
following,  from  Evansville,  Ind. : 

"In  April,  1890,  the  Lord  sent  our  brother,  Yatman,  here  to  con- 
duct a  meeting.  At  that  time  I  was  a  poor,  degraded,  outcast 
drunkard,  with  no  one  to  give  a  helping  hand  or  a  word  of  cheer.  I 
had  gone  beyond  all  hope  of  my  relatives,  they  had  given  me  up  as 
lost,  as  I  was  nothing  but  a  barroom  wall-flower,  as  I  sat  there  from 
morning  till  late  at  night ;  all  of  my  will  power  was  gone  and  I  would 
sell  the  clothes  off  of  my  back  to  get  the  soul-destroying  stuff;  but, 
praise  the  Lord,  He  sent  Brother  Yatman  here  as  an  instrument  in 
His  hands,  to  snatch  me  as  a  brand  from  the  eternal  burning,  and 
to-day  I  am  singing,  in  spirit  and  in  truth,  'happy  on  the  way, 
with  a  sorrow  for  sin  I  let  Jesus  come  in  and  now  it  is  glor}'  in  my 
soul.'  The  Great  Physician  healed  me,  and  to-day  I  am  a  sober  man, 
clothed  and  in  my  right  mind,  and  trying  to  serve  the  Lord  in  all 


KESCUP]    WOKK.  383 

things,  and  praying  daily  that  He  will  make  me  as  clay  in  the  pot- 
ter's hand  and  use  me  to  His  honor  and  glory." 

Thus  the  rescue  mission  is  a  work  not  alone  of  rescue,  but  of 
■prevention  as  well.  Every  individual  redeemed,  from  being  the 
burden  and  the  bane  of  society,  becomes  vice's  enemy  and  crime's 
prevention — no  longer  preying  upon  others  he  now  begins  to  pray  for 
others.  There  is  no  more  notable  example  of  this  than  the  case  of 
Jerry  McAuley  himself.  The  very  air  is  poisoned  with  vice,  and  it 
is  contagious;  obscenity  and  profanity  are  breathed  with  the  atmos- 
phere. You  might  as  well  think  of  standing  in  a  closely  confined 
room  where  there  are  fifty  people,  and  yet  not  breathe  the  vitiated 
air,  as  to  stand  in  a  community  where  there  is  a  multitude  of  the 
depraved,  without  being  contaminated.  Every  city  has  its  "Poverty 
Gap"  and  its  "Damnation  Alley,"  and  though  apparently  hidden  in 
Bome  out-of-the-way  street  or  corner,  every  inhabitant,  especially 
our  children,  wiU  be  morally  injured  by  the  influence  of  the  leprous 
life.  But  it  is  admitted  that  the  ordinary  agencies  of  the  church  fail 
to  reach  these  abandoned  classes.  In  that  case  the  church  ought  not 
only  to  plant  and  sustain  the  rescue  mission,  as  a  simple  matter  of 
Christian  duty,  but  as  a  means  of  self-defence  as  well. 

We  may  labor  never  so  earnestly  in  the  upper  strata  of  society 
without  influencing  the  lower  strata.  If  you  placed  screws  under 
the  roof  of  a  building  and  raised  that,  you  would  never  expect  the 
walls  and  foundation  to  follow  it  up.  But  if  you  wish  roof,  walls, 
foundation  and  all  to  go  up,  place  your  screws  under  the  entire  struc- 
ture, then  every  inch  that  your  foundation  goes  up  your  walls  and 
roof  will  go  up  also.  It  was  Beecher  who  said  that  "in  human  soci- 
ety that  system  which  is  comprehensive  enough  to  take  care  of  the 
bottom  will  best  take  care  of  the  top.  You  cannot  boil  a  caldron 
downward  with  fuel,  but  you  can  upward.  It  is  impojff-ible  to  get 
a  radiation  from  an  upper  class  that  shall  enlighten  a  lower.  The 
educated  portion  of  a  community  is  liable  to  be  arrogant,  exclusive 
and  dominating;  and  in  order  to  raise  society  as  a  whole,  there  mu.st 
be  a  moral  system  whose  genius  is  to  exert  its  forces  upon  every  class. 
Is  it  not  reasonable  to  suppose  that  a  system  that  is  capable  of  tak- 
ing care  of  the  worst  will  be  much  more  abundantly  capable  of  tak- 
ing care  of  the  best?  The  Saviour  came  to  the  neglected,  the  de- 
spised and  despoiled,  the  poor,  the  helpless.  He  was  radical.  He 
began  at  the  root.  He  addressed  Himself  to  the  bottom.  He  preached 
a  gospel  that  had  regard,  not  to  a  few,  not  to  the  more  prosperous, 


d84 


CHRISTENDOM. 


not  to  the  wealthy,  not  to  those  who  could  make  return  for  his  efforts 
on  their  behalf,  but  to  those  who  constituted  the  foundation  of  so- 
ciety, and  who,  if  carried  up,  would  be  lifted  by  a  system  of  moral 
influences  that  must  carry  up  the  whole  of  society." 


S.    H.    HAULEY. 


THE    WOMAN^S  CHRISTIAN    TEMPERANCE 

UNION. 


ELatharine  Lente  Stevenson, 

BOSTON. 

[The  first  and  most  necessary  effort,  without  which  all  others  will  be  fruit- 
less, must  be  to  awaken  the  apathetic  torpor,  to  scarify  the  dull  callosity  of 
the  conscience  of  civilized  nations  on  this  subject.  Oliver  Cromwell  said 
long  ago:  "National  crime  is  a  thing  that  God  will  reckon  with,  and  I  wish 
it  may  not  be  on  the  nation  a  day  longer  than  you  have  an  opportunity  to 
find  a  remedy."  Alas !  the  remedy  has  been  pointed  out  with  most  earnest 
insistence  for  many  years,  but  it  has  not  been  listened  to  because  the  greed 
of  gain,  the  various  pleas  of  self-interest,  and  the  demon  force  of  a  self-created 
temptation  have  utterly  drowned  the  voices  of  reason,  of  religion  and  of  con- 
eciencs.  We  need  some  God-inspired  prophet  to  bring  home  the  truth  to  ub 
in  words  of  fame.  No  prophet  comes — perhaps  because  we  are  too  much 
sunk  in  guilt  and  apathy  to  deserve  one.  One  thing,  however,  is  certain  : 
Nations  do  not  perish  of  their  external  disasters ;  they  perish  by  their  sins. 
I  cannot  speak  from  intimate  knowledge  as  to  the  advance  or  stationariness 
of  the  temperance  movement  in  America ;  but  it  is  certain  that  in  England, 
in  spite  of  long-continued  efforts,  the  liquor  traffic  is  not  only  bloated  with 
enormous  wealth,  but  has  managed,  to  our  political  infamy,  so  completely  to 
terrify,  hamper,  sophisticate  the  Government  as  to  leave  us  no  immediate 
hope  of  real  improvement.  A  short  time  ago  our  conservative  Chancellor  of 
the  Exchequer  warned  us,  not  without  a  sense  of  astonishment,  that — includ- 
ing hosts  of  total  abstainers  and  millions  of  children — we  are  spending  on 
drink  every  year  no  less  than  £3  17s.  Gd.  per  head ;  and  shortly  afterward  a 
Liberal  ex-Chancellor  proved,  by  statistics  which  ought  to  make  us  blush,  that 
more  beer,  more  stout,  more  wine,  more  ardent  spirits  of  every  kind,  were 
consumed  in  England  than  in  any  other  country  on  the  surface_of  the  globe. 
"It  is  a  cheap  device,"  said  William  Lloyd  Garrison,  "to  brand  the  temper- 
ance movement  as  fanatical.  I  deny  that  it  has  a  single  feature  of  fanati- 
cism, for  it  is  based  on  physiological  principles,  chemical  relations,  Iho  welfare 
of  society,  the  laws  of  self-preservation,  the  claims  of  suffering  hnnianity,  all 
that  is  noble  in  patriotism,  generous  in  philanthropy,  and  pure  and  good  in 
Christianity."  "Let  us  all  carry  deeply  stamped  on  our  minds."  said  Mr. 
Gladstone,  "a  sense  of  shame  for  the  great  plague  of  drunkenness  which  goes 
through  the  land  sapping  and  undermining  character,  and  breaking  up  the 
peace  of  families.  This  great  plague  and  curse  is  a  national  curse,  calamity 
and  scandal." 

If  it  be  too  much  to  expect  consciences  made  impenetrable  by  custom  that 
they  should  inquire  at  first  hand  into  all  this  terrific  evidence,  is  it  a  matter 

385 


386  CHRISTENDOM. 

of  indifiference  to  them  that  all  our  judges,  all  our  best  diviues,  all  our  great- 
est physicians,  even  all  our  chief  athletes,  yea,  our  bravast  generals,  have 
united  in  condemning  the  pernicious  influences  of  alcohol  in  every  department 
of  our  national  life?  How  utterly  shameful,  then,  should  apathy  on  this 
subject  be  in  any  patriot,  in  any  Christian,  in  anyone  who  has  the  least  care 
for  or  sympathy  with  his  brother  man ! 

"When  Mercy  has  played  her  part  in  vain.  Vengeance  leaps  upon  the  stage. 
She  strikes  sharp  strokes,  and  Pity  does  not  break  the  blow." — P.  W.  Farbab. 
"Hom.  Review,"  January,  1901. — Ed.] 


The  history  of  the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union  in 
America  is  so  inextricably  blended  with  the  record  of  the  temper- 
ance movements  which  preceded  its  organization  that  it  is  impos- 
sible to  consider  it  as  standing  alone.  It  is  true  1:liat,  in  its  present 
manifestation,  it  sprang  up  with  almost  miraculous  swiftness — full- 
armed,  like  Minerva,  it  seemed  born  in  an  hour — but  the  causes 
which  led  to  that  marvelous  birth  and  equally  marvelous  growth  lay 
far  behind,  and  the  organization  is  only  the  consummate  flower  of 
principles  which  long  since  took  deep  root  in  the  soil  of  our  common 
life.  While  we  of  the  white  ribbon  believe  our  society  to  be  the  best 
and  most  efficient  working  force  now  in  the  field  of  reform,  we  are 
both  glad  and  proud  to  acknowledge  that  it  has  been  made  possible 
only  by  all  that  went  before  us,  and  that  we  shall  ultimately  become 
but  another  contributing  force  to  the  greater  all  which  is  to  come 
after. 

Rev.  Dr.  Dunn,  secretary  of  the  National  Temperance  Society, 
contributed  a  luminous  history  of  the  temperance  reform  in  America 
to  the  World's  Temperance  Congress  which,  at  the  call  of  His  Grace 
the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  convened  in  London  in  June,  1900. 
From  this  paper,  placed  in  my  hands  for  this  purpose,  through  the 
author's  kindness,  I  glean  the  following  facts  with  reference  to  the 
temperance  history  in  America  which  precedes  our  own : 

To  the  town  of  East  Hampton,  L.  I.,  belongs  the  high  honor  of 
having  passed  the  first  restrictive  legislation  with  reference  to  the 
sale  of  spirituous  liquors.  In  1G51  this  town  passed  a  law  forbid- 
ding any  one  to  sell  liquor  except  those  deputed  to  do  so.  This  law 
contained  other  clauses  regulating  the  sale  to  youths,  limiting  the 
quantity  to  one  half  pint  among  four  men,  and  positively  forbade  the 
selling  to  any  Indian,  unless  he  carried  an  order  from  his  sachem. 
Other  towns,  in  different  parts  of  the  country,  passed  similar  laws — 
some  much  stronger — until,  in  1676,  the  new  Constitution  of  Vir- 


TEMPERANCE.  387 

ginia  absolutely  prohibited  the  manufacture  and  sale  of  spirituous 
liquors,  thus  antedating  the  Maine  law  by  nearly  two  centuries. 

It  is  evident,  however,  that  this  impulse  toward  temperance  legis- 
lation was  very  speedily  overborne  by  other  matters  which  occupied 
the  attention  of  the  early  settlers  of  our  new  country.  As  their 
power  increased,  their  fear  of  the  Indian  seems  to  have  diminished, 
and  with  it  their  fear  of  the  enemy  common  to  both  white  man  and 
Indian — strong  drink.  A  hundred  years'  lapse  before  any  special 
temperance  effort  is  recorded  throughout  the  American  colonies. 

In  1760  the  Friends  united  in  a  protest  against  the  custom  of 
furnishing  drink  at  funerals. 

On  the  27th  of  February,  1777,  the  first  Congress  of  the  United 
States  of  America  passed  this  significant  resolution:  "Resolved, 
That  it  be  recommended  to  the  several  legislatures  in  the  United 
States  immediately  to  pass  laws  the  most  effective  for  putting  an 
immediate  stop  to  the  pernicious  practise  of  distilling  grains  by 
which  the  most  extensive  evils  are  likely  to  be  derived,  if  not  quickly 
prevented." 

In  July,  1780,  we  find  the  farmers  of  Litchfield  county,  Connec- 
ticut, pledging  themselves  to  use  no  distilled  liquors  during  their 
work  the  ensuing  season. 

The  next  temperance  movement  seems  to  have  arisen  among  the 
physicians  of  the  country,  under  the  leadership  of  Dr.  Benjamin 
Rush,  of  Philadelphia,  and,  on  December  29,  1790,  they  petitioned 
Congress  to  "impose  sucli  heavy  duties  upon  all  distilled  spirits  aa 
shaH  be  effectual  to  restrain  their  intemperate  use  in  our  country." 
In  1789  the  Methodists  of  Virginia  and  the  Presbyterians  of 
Pennsylvania  adopted,  in  their  conferences,  total  abstinence  resolu- 
tions while  the  first  temperance  society  in  the  country  was  organized 
in  M'orean,  Saratoga  county,  N.  Y.,  on  the  13th  of  April,  1808. 
Several  sections  of  the  constitution  of  this  society  are  interesting  as 
denoting  the  slow  growth  of  the  principle  of  an  absolute  total  absti- 
nence as  the  words  are  understood  to-day.  The  drinking  of  liquor 
at  public  dinners  was  exempted  from  the  provisions  of  this  pledge, 
while  wide  latitude  was  given  for  possible  "physicians'  prescrip- 
tions." Other  societies  of  a  similar  nature  speedily  followed  this  in 
the  State  of  New  York.  .      r.,       i        t 

In  1811  the  General  Association  of  the  Presbyterian  Cliurchcs  of 
Philadelphia  appointed  a  committee  to  report  plans  f^rjict.on  with 
reference  to  temperance.     On  the  12th  of  February,  1813,  the  Tem- 


388  CHRISTENDOM. 

peranee  Society  of  Massachusetts  was  organized.  The  interest  in 
this,  however,  speedily  became  lukewarm,  but,  in  1823,  a  strong 
appeal  was  issued  by  the  society,  in  which,  among  other  things,  this 
prophetic  statement  may  be  noted:  "Two  things  only  appear  cer- 
tain; 1st,  that  a  principal  object  must  be  to  draw  public  attention 
frequently  and  earnestly  to  this  subject;  2d,  it  seems  at  the  same 
time  equally  clear  that  there  is  no  man,  nor  body  of  men,  who  can 
strike  at  the  root  of  the  evil  but  the  Legislature  of  the  nation."  In 
that  year  Dr.  Justin  Edwards  and  Dr.  Eliphalet  Nott  preached  their 
strong,  arousing  temperance  sermons. 

The  year  1826  was  marked  by  the  organization  of  the  American 
Temperance  Society,  with  its  pledge  of  "Total  abstinence  from  ar- 
dent spirits" ;  by  the  publication  of  "The  National  Philanthropist," 
and  the  wonderful  temperance  sermons  of  Dr.  Lyman  Beecher. 

In  1832  General  Lewis  Cass  prohibited  the  introduction  of  liquor 
into  forts,  garrisons  and  camps  of  the  United  States  army;  also  its 
sale  to  the  soldiers  by  sutlers. 

The  year  1833  marked  the  high  tide  of  temperance  sentiment  in 
the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  centun'.  Five  thousand  temperance 
societies  were  reported  in  that  year,  with  a  membership  of  one  and 
one-quarter  millions;  10,000  of  these  were  said  to  be  reformed 
drunkards.  Four  thousand  distilleries  were  reported  closed;  6,000 
merchants  gave  up  the  sale,  and  on  over  one  thousand  vessels  the  use 
of  liquor  was  abandoned.  On  the  26th  of  February,  in  this  year, 
the  Congressional  Temperance  Society  was  formed  in  Washington, 
D.  C,  with  General  Lewis  Cass  as  its  president;  while,  on  the  15th 
of  March,  Massachusetts  formed  a  similar  society,  with  the  Governor 
of  the  state  at  its  head.  This  memorable  year  also  witnessed  the 
first  National  Temperance  Convention,  which  met  in  Philadelphia, 
May  24  to  26.  Four  hundred  and  forty  delegates  were  present  from 
nineteen  states  and  territories. 

In  1840  the  famous  Washingtonian  movement,  under  the  leader- 
ship of  six  reformed  men,  aroused  the  country  with  a  new  enthusi- 
asm. In  1842  the  Sons  of  Temperance  and  the  Order  of  the  Recha- 
bites  were  organized;  while,  during  the  same  year,  one  of  the  noblest 
heroes  of  the  temperance  reform,  John  B.  Gough,  dedicated  his 
matchless  and  unique  oratorical  powers  to  the  overthrow  of  the 
strong  drink  which  had  so  nearly  overthrown  him. 

The  year  1845  witnessed  the  organization  of  "The  Templars  of 
Honor  and  Temperance,"  while,  during  the  winter  of  1845-46,  the 


TEMPERANCE.  389 

"Grand  Old  Man  of  Maine,"  General  Neal  Dow,  then  in  tlie  prime 
of  his  manhood,  came  to  the  front,  and,  under  his  wise,  mag-netic 
leadership,  the  Pine  Tree  State  passed  the  Prohibitory  statute  which 
has  since  been  known  as  "the  Maine  law." 

In  1847  the  Supremo  Court  of  the  United  States  decided  that 
any  state  had  a  constitutional  right  to  regulate  or  suppress  the  sale 
of  liquor.  Under  the  incentive  of  this  decision.  New  Hampshire 
passed  a  prohibitory  law  in  18-49,  while,  during  the  same  year,  Wis- 
consin passed  a  law  which  obliged  the  seller  of  liquor  to  be  respon- 
sible for  all  expense  growing  out  of  its  sale,  including  the  support  of 
"paupers,  widows  and  orphans,"  and  the  expense  of  all  civil  and 
criminal  prosecutions  growing  out  of  or  justly  attributable  to  such 
traflBc. 

In  1849  Father  Mathow  began  his  work  in  this  country.  In 
1851  the  Order  of  Good  Templars  was  instituted.  During  the  same 
year  the  Prohibitory  law  of  Maine  was  placed  in  the  constitution  of 
that  state,  by  the  overwhelming  vote  of  the  people,  and  from  this 
vantage  ground  no  effort  of  the  liquor  power  has  ever  been  able  to 
dislodge  it;  the  last  attempt,  in  the  Legislature  of  1900  and  1901, 
having  signally  failed. 

In  1852,  Minnesota,  Vermont,  Massachusetts  and  Rhode  Island 
passed  prohibitory  laws.  In  1853  Michigan  joined  the  goodly  fel- 
lowship of  prohibition  states,  and  the  law  in  Wisconsin  was  lost  by 
one  vote  only.  In  1854  New  York  passed  a  prohibitory  law,  which 
was  vetoed  by  Governor  Seymour.  The  candidacy  of  Governor 
Seymour  was  defeated  the  next  fall,  and  his  opponent,  Myron  H. 
Clark,  gave  his  influence  and  signature  to  the  Prohibition  bill.  In 
1856  the  first  Juvenile  Temperance  Society  was  organized.  As  an 
offset  to  such  rapid  advance  among  the  temperance  forces  it  must  be 
noted  that,  in  1862,  the  Brewers'  Association  was  formed. 

The  year  1868  witnessed  the  organization  of  the  NaUonal  Pro- 
hibition Party;  also  of  the  Royal  Templars  of  Temperance.  In 
1872  the  Catholic  Total  Abstinence  Society  came  into  being,  and 
during  the  same  year  the  Prohibitionists  placed  a  national  ticket  in 
the  field,  with  James  Black  candidate  for  President,  and  Rev.  John 
Russell  for  Vice-President.  The  twelfth  Annual  Congress  of 
Brewers,  which  met  shortly  after,  passed  resolutions  protesting 
against  the  action  of  temperance  agitators,  and  pledging  to  oppose, 
a°the  polls,  all  candidates  for  office  who  were  pledged  to  temperance 
legislation.     In  1872  petitions  against  the  sale  of  liquor  in  the  Terri- 


390  CHRISTENDOM. 

tories  constituted  the  chief  temperance  activity,  and  in  1873  the 
Attorney-General  decided  that  no  liquor  could  be  sold  in  the  Terri- 
tory of  Alaska. 

The  winter  of  1873-74  was  marked  by  an  uprising,  in  the  interest 
of  temperance,  of  the  women  of  the  nation,  which  soon  came  to  be 
known  as  the  Woman's  Crusade.  For  despite  all  the  temperance 
activity  above  recorded  there  had  been  a  marked  increase  in  the  in- 
tem.perance  of  the  nation  during  the  two  preceding  decades.  The 
civil  war,  undoubtedly,  must  be  held  largely  responsible  for  this 
fact,  as  well  as  the  formidable  combination  which  "the  trade" 
effected  at  that  time  in  its  own  interests.  The  nation's  direct  part- 
nership in  the  traffic  dates  back  to  the  taxes  upon  liquor  imposed  as  a 
part  of  the  war  revenue. 

The  greed  of  gain,  which  is  one  of  the  many  sad  accompaniments 
of  war,  took  possession  of  a  large  proportion  of  the  people.  The 
interests  of  manhood  and  of  the  home  were  largely  lost  sight  of  in 
the  interest  of  money  getting,  and  the  country  seemed  in  great  dan- 
ger of  cutting  loose  from  the  traditions  and  ideals  of  its  past. 

The  hearts  of  the  Christian  women  of  the  land  were  sorely  burd- 
ened. The  passionate  patriotism  which  they  had  poured  out  upon 
the  altar  of  their  country  had  grown  rather  than  diminished  with 
its  giving.  They  longed  to  help  redeem  their  nation  from  a  foe, 
mightier  and  more  inimical  to  righteousness  than  any  which  had 
hitherto  assailed  it ;  the  foe  of  North  and  South  alike — the  organized, 
legalized  liquor  traffic.  When  the  opportunity  came  it  was  small 
wonder  that  they  availed  themselves  of  it  in  such  a  spontaneous 
uprising  as  seemed  little  short  of  miraculous.  The  seed  had  fallen 
in  prepared  ground,  and  the  harvest  was  both  swift  and  sure. 

Dr.  Dio  Lewis,  of  Boston,  Massachusetts,  was  the  man  whom  God 
used  to  incite  the  women  of  the  nation.  During  a  lecture 
tour  through  New  York  and  Ohio,  in  the  winter  of  1873-74,  he  fre- 
quently told  the  story  of  what  his  mother  had  done,  fifty  years  be- 
fore, to  close  the  one  saloon  in  the  little  town  in  New  York  State 
where  she  had  lived.  As  he  told  the  story  in  Fredonia,  N.  Y.,  on 
December  15th,  the  women  went  out  of  the  meeting  and  organized 
themselves  into  a  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union,  the  first 
organization  in  the  world  to  bear  that  name.  Mrs.  Esther  MacNeil 
was  its  first  president.  As  he  told  the  story  in  Hillsboro,  Ohio,  on 
the  23d  of  the  same  month,  seventy  women  banded  themselves  to- 
gether for  prayer  and  effort  against  the  liquor  traffic.     They  chose 


TEMPERANCE.  391 

as  their  leader  Mrs.  Eliza  J.  Thompson,  wife  of  a  judge  of  that 
town,  and  daughter  of  ex-Governor  Trimball  of  Ohio,  and  the  next 
day,  after  spending  an  hour  in  prayer  at  the  church,  they  marched 
out  upon  the  street  singing: 

"Give  to  the  winds  thy  fears,  , 

Hope  aud  be  undismayed ;  ; 

God  hears  thy  cries  and  counts  tliy  tears ; 
God  will  lift  up  thy  head." 

They  went  to  the  drugstores  on  that  first  day,  and  pled  with  the 
proprietors  to  sell  no  spirituous  liquors. 

The  same  evening  Dr.  Lewis  told  his  story  to  an  audience  in 
Washington  Court  House,  Ohio,  and  there  the  most  phenomenal 
results  followed.  Hundreds  of  women  joined  the  praying  band, 
which,  under  the  leadership  of  Mrs.  George  Carpenter,  began  its 
work  of  visiting  the  saloons,  praying  upon  the  streets  and  "crusad- 
ing" with  such  vigor  that  the  eyes  of  all  the  world  were  speedily 
turned  toward  Ohio. 

From  this  centre  the  flames  of  enthusiasm  swept  east,  west,  north 
and  south,  until  the  land  was  aroused  in  such  a  temperance  revival 
as  had  never  before  been  known.  For  six  months  this  crusade  lasted, 
and  it  is  estimated  that,  during  that  time,  many  thousands  of  men 
gave  up  drinking  and  many  hundreds  of  saloon  keepers  abandoned 
the  traffic.  The  women  met  with  much  opposition,  persecution, 
obloquy  and  contumely,  as  well  as  with  much  honest  praise  and  noble 
encouragement  from  the  best  element  in  every  community.  In  some 
instances  they  were  prosecuted  and  even  imprisoned,  but  the  heart 
of  the  people  was  with  them,  since  it  was  seen  that  they  were  stand- 
ing for  the  home,  and  their  victories  were  so  signal  as,  in  many  in- 
stances, to  seem  nothing  less  than  miraculous. 

In  the  nature  of  things  this  method  of  work,  though  admirably 
adapted  to  awaken  the  public  conscience,  could  not  be  con- 
tinued as  the  normal  method  of  temperance  work.  The  homes  of 
the  land  would  have  become  disintegrated  through  the  very  efforts 
put  forth  to  preserve  them,  if  the  mothers,  wives  and  daughters  had 
continued,  from  that  time  to  this,  their  work  tlirough  crusade  meth- 
ods. After  six  months  had  elapsed  the  enemies  of  temperance  were 
able  to  point  to  the  crusade  as  a  thing  of  past  history,  and  to  say: 
"We  told  you  it  would  not  last."  But  by  this  very  statement  they 
gave  proof  of  how  little  they  had  understood  the  significance  of  the 


392  CHRISTENDOM. 

movement.  The  women  of  that  great  moral  uprising  were  not  com- 
mitted to  crusade  metliods,  but  they  were  committed  to  the  over- 
throw of  the  liquor  traffic  by  any  and  all  righteous  methods  which 
should  appear  feasible.  Inevitably  their  thoughts  turned  toward 
permanent  organization.  Chancellor  John  H.  Vincent,  of  the  fa- 
mous Chautauqua  movement,  now  Bishop  Vincent,  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  issued  a  call  for  those  who  had  been  interested 
in  the  crusade  to  assemble  at  Chautauqua  Lake,  N.  Y.,  in  August, 
1874.  A  comparatively  large  number  responded  to  this  call,  and 
from  this  preliminary  meeting  a  call  was  sent  forth  which  resulted 
in  the  organizing  convention,  held  in  Cleveland,  Ohio,  November 
18-20,  1874.  At  this  convention,  held  in  less  than  a  year  from  the 
beginning  of  the  crusade,  the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union 
of  the  United  States  of  America  was  formally  organized.  Dele- 
gates from  sixteen  states  were  present  and  took  part  in  the  ex- 
ercises. The  officers  elected  were :  President,  Mrs.  Annie  Witten- 
meyer,  of  Philadelphia ;  Corresponding  Secretary,  Miss  Frances  E. 
Willard,  of  Evanston,  Illinois;  Recording  Secretary,  Mrs.  Mary  C. 
Johnson,  of  New  York;  Assistant  Recording  Secretary,  Mrs.  Mary 
T.  Burt,  of  New  York;  Treasurer,  Mrs.  W.  A.  Ingham,  of  Cleve- 
land, Ohio.  The  spirit  of  the  convention,  throughout,  was  deeply 
devotional  and  intensely  practical,  and  no  wise  onlooker  could  fail 
to  see  that  the  women  were  but  putting  into  organized,  concrete  ex- 
pression the  motive  and  impulse  of  the  crusade.  Experience,  even 
at  that  early  date,  had  taught  the  women  that  to  awaken  good  im- 
pulses in  the  heart  of  a  man  who  had  been  a  slave  to  intemperance, 
is  by  no  means  a  sure  guarantee  of  ultimate  victory  in  that  man's 
life.  The  mightiest  strivings  after  reformation,  they  had  found, 
were  sometimes  met  by  a  seemingly  overwhelming  defeat;  both  be- 
cause the  habit  had  so  crystallized  that  it  had  become  a  second  na- 
ture, and  because  the  legalized  dram  shop  stood  at  well-nigh  every 
corner,  with  its  too  alluring  invitation  to  abandon  self-control  for 
self-gratification.  It  was  seen  that  society  itself  nnist  be  reformed,  re- 
formed in  its  very  organization;  that  the  best  way  to  reform  the 
individual  drunkard  is  to  begin  with  him  before  he  needs  reforma- 
tion, and  that  the  best  way  to  check  the  ravages  of  the  saloon  is  to 
annihilate  the  saloon  itself.  Therefore,  at  the  convention  of  1874, 
plans  were  made  to  educate  the  children  in  the  principle  and  prac- 
tice of  total  abstinence,  and  to  awaken  public  sentiment  to  the  enor- 
mity of  the  evils  growing  out  of  and  fostered  by  the  licensed  saloon. 


1-  k   \\(    1   N      I-..    \\   II    I    AKI' 
KOUNDKK   or  THE  \VOKI.I>'s   WoMAN'^   (THUSllAN   Tl- M  li:  K  A  M  1-   I   M"N 


TEMPERANCE.  393 

The  plan  of  work  of  this  first  convention  reads  like  a  prophecy  of 
much  that  has  since  been  accomplished ;  nor  is  this  strange,  when  wi? 
remember  that  the  woman  who,  almost  from  the  inception  of  the 
society,  was  recognized  as  its  God-given  leader,  was  one  of  the  mem- 
bers of  that  committee.  I  quote  from  the  Annual  Address  of  the 
President  of  the  National  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union, 
Mrs.  L.  M.  N.  Stevens,  at  the  Seattle  National  Convention,  Octo- 
ber, 1899 : 

"Miss  Willard  and  Mrs.  M.  M.  Brown  were  made  the  committee 
to  prepare  the  address  and  plan  of  work  of  the  National  Union. 
Miss  Willard  wrote  every  word  of  the  plan  of  Avork,  and  it  is  deeply 
interesting  for  us  to  note  how  much,  then  planned,  has  come  to  pass. 
"The  first  section  dealt  with  Organization,  thus :  'Since  organiza- 
tion is  the  sun-glass  which  brings  to  a  focus  scattered  influence  and 
effort,  we  urge  the  formation  of  a  Woman's  Christian  Temperance 
Union  in  every  State,  city,  town  and  village.'  Then  there  were  no 
auxiliary  unions,  now  there  are  ten  thousand,  reaching  over  every 
State  and  Territory,  and  to  our  new  possession  of  Hawaii. 
"  'The  careful  selection  of  literature.' 

"The  demand  for  temperance  literature  by  our  unions,  as  soon  as 
organized,  has  created  the  supply.  Of  late  the  Woman's  Temper- 
ance Publication  Association  alone  has  turned  out  annually  more 
than  fifty  million  pages  of  temperance  literature,  to  say  nothing  of 
the  circulation  of  that  already  in  stock  and  furnished  from  other 
sources,  such  as  the  National  Temperance  Society,  etc.,  and  nearly 
all  the  States  have  a  State  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union 
paper. 

"'Teaching  the  children,  in  Sabbath  schools  and  public  schools, 
the  ethics,  physiology  and  hygiene  of  total  abstinence.' 

"To-day,  as  the  outcome  of  this  section  of  the  plan  of  work  of 
1874,  temperance  instruction  is  given  according  to  law  in  all  the 
States  save  three,  the  District  of  Columbia  and  the  tcrri-tori(^,  In- 
dian, Naval  and  Military  schools ;  there  are  also  Quarterly  Temper- 
ance' lessons  in  the  International  Sabbath  School  series ;  the  uni- 
versal Temperance  Sunday  is  widely  observed;  pledge  signing  is 
quite  general  in  the  Sunday-school ;  half  a  million  children  of  the 
Sunday-school  and  Loyal  Temperance  Legion  sent  their  autographs 
on  the  triple  pledge  to  the  World's  Columbian  Exposition  in  1S!)3. 
"  'Offering  prizes  in  these  schools  for  essays  on  different  aspects 
of  these  subjects.     Organizing  temperance  Glee  Clubs  among  the 


394  CHRISTENDOM. 

young  people;  enlisting  the  press  in  the  temperance  reform  by  se- 
curing columns,  etc. ;  placing  illustrative  pictures  in  the  school 
rooms.' 

"Dear  comrades,  we  know  how  truly  all  this  has  come  to  be  a  part 
of  our  work. 

''Section  third  referred  to  the  juvenile  temperance  societies;  urg- 
ing the  formation  and  perpetual  continuance  of  temperance  socie- 
ties to  be  composed  of  children  and  youth. 

"As  proof  of  the  wisdom  and  utility  of  this  recommendation,  we 
have  but  to  look  away  to  the  three  hundred  thousand  Loyal  Temper- 
ance Legion  children  of  to-day. 

"Section  four  referred  to  pledge  signing;  and  section  five  recom- 
mended an  effort  to  banish  fermented  wine  from  the  communion 
table.  Some  of  us  remember  the  long  discussion  which  was  called 
up  two  years  later,  when  a  resolution  to  this  effect  was  offered  at  the 
Newark  Convention,  which  resolution  was  finally  adopted  by  a  ris- 
ing vote  of  52  to  21.  Many  true-hearted,  conservative  church  wom- 
en looked  upon  this  resolution  as  sacrilegious ;  but  these  same  women, 
after  observation  with  eyes  open  to  see  the  dangerous  effects  of  wine, 
even  though  taken  under  the  most  sacred  circumstances — especially 
upon  those  rescued  from  drink  and  brought  to  the  church  altar — 
were  among  the  first  at  the  next  convention  to  declare  that  the  reso- 
lution should  be  repeated  and  with  renewed  emphasis.  And  so  it 
has  gone  on  until  some  of  the  States  are  able  to  report  the  disuse  of 
fermented  wine  in  all  the  churches  save  the  Episcopal  and  Roman 
Catholic,  and  in  the  latter  communion  the  cup  is  received  by  the 
clergy  only. 

"Then,  in  this  remarkable  first  plan,  follow  sections  referring  to 
anti-treating  leagues,  gospel  temperance  meetings,  coffee  rooms, 
homes*  for  inebriate  women,  the  erection  of  fountains,  and  a  plan  of 
finance  similar  to  that  under  which  we  are  working  to-day;  and 
lastly  the  trysting  time  with  God,  and  the  conclusion  in  these  words : 

"  'Dear  sisters,  we  have  laid  before  you  the  plan  of  the  long  cam- 
paign. Will  you  work  with  us?  We  wage  our  peaceful  war  in 
loving  expectation  of  that  day  "when  all  men's  weal  shall  be  each 
man's  care,"  when  "nothing  shall  hurt  or  destroy  in  all  my  holy 
mountain" ;  and  in  our  day  we  may  live  to  see  America,  beloved 
mother  of  thrice  grateful  daughters,  set  at  liberty,  full  and  complete, 
from  foamy  King  Gambrinus  and  fiery  old  King  Alcohol.' 

"Take  up  the  Annual  Leaflet  of  the  National  Woman's  Christian 


TEMPERANCE.  395 

Temperance  Union  for  1899,  and  we  will  find  that  the  plan  prepared 
at  the  convention  held  twenty-live  years  ago,  and  the  plan  under 
which  we  are  working  to-day,  are  strongly  similar,  and  the  summing 
up  of  the  whole  matter  means  that  the  tree  of  intemperance  is  being 
girdled,  the  liquor  system  must  be  overthrown — the  saloon  must  go." 

Not  even  the  briefest,  most  cursory  history  of  the  Woman's  Chris- 
tian Temperance  Union  could  be  complete  without  a  short  sketch  of 
the  life  and  work  of  its  great  leader.  She,  more  than  any  and  all 
other  agencies,  made  it  the  power  that  it  is  to-day.  Her  far-seeing 
eye  caught  visions  of  the  future ;  her  all-inclusive  mind  was  able  to 
correlate  this  with  other  reform  movements ;  her  magnetic  person- 
ality has  placed  its  indelible  impress  upon  the  entire  organization, 
from  local  to  world's  union,  and  the  Woman's  Christian  Temper- 
ance Union  is,  in  the  truest  sense  of  the  term,  her  living  monument. 

Frances  Elizabeth  Willard  was  born  at  Churchville,  near  Roches- 
ter, N.  Y.,  on  September  28,  1839.  Her  parents  were  the  Hon. 
Josiah  F.  and  Mary  T.  Hill  Willard,  both  a  sturdy  New  England 
Puritan  stock.  Her  girlhood  was  spent  in  Churchville,  Oberlin, 
Ohio,  and  Janesville,  Wis.,  whence  the  family  removed  to  Evanston, 
111.,  where  she  came  to  be  known  for  many  years  as  the  most  dis- 
tinguished citizen  of  that  town  filled  with  distinguished  people. 
She  graduated  from  the  Northwestern  University,  and,  in  later 
years,  received  the  degree  of  A.  M.  from  Syracuse  University,  and 
that  of  LL.  D.  from  Ohio  W^esleyan.  She  was  for  four  years  Pro- 
fessor of  Natural  Science  at  the  Northwestern  Female  College ;  one 
year  preceptress  of  the  Genesee  Wesleyan  Seminary,  Lima,  N.  Y. ; 
two  years  traveled  abroad,  studying  continental  languages  and  the 
Fine  Arts;  in  1871  became  President  of  the  Woman's  College,  and 
Professor  of  ^Esthetics  in  the  Northwestern  University.  When  the 
crusade  startled  the  land.  Miss  Willard  recognized  it  as  of  Cod's 
ordaining,  even  before  it  had  commended  itself  to  the  mass  of  Chris- 
tian people.  She  longed  to  "help  those  women,"  but  her  hands 
were  filled  with  the  work  of  her  position ;  so,  beyond  words  of  sym- 
pathy, both  spoken  and  written,  and  prayer  to  the  Divine  Strength, 
she  was  not  actively  allied  with  the  crusade.  Suddenly  and  unex- 
pectedly her  hands  were  freed,  and  then  she  followed  what  all  her 
after-history  proves  to  have  been  God's  voice,  and  gave  herself  in 
a  splendid  abandon  of  consecration  to  this  new  and  unpopular  cause. 
A  fine  position,  as  preceptress  of  a  wealthy  New  York  school,  was 
offered  to  her;  and  in  the  same  mail  came  a  letter  from  the  rem- 


396  CHRISTENDOM. 

nant  of  the  crusade  in  Chicago,  who  were  holding  Gospel  meetings 
and  trying  to  carry  on  the  work,  asking  her  to  be  their  president. 
She  chose  the  cause  which  led  away  from  ease  and  natural  tastes,  and 
gave  herself  to  that  handful  of  women,  and  the  whole  world  justifies 
her  choice. 

From  the  Chicago  Union,  in  the  fall  of  1874,  she  was  sent  as 
delegate  to  the  organizing  convention  of  the  Illinois  Woman's  Chris- 
tian Temperance  Union.  From  this  state  gathering  she  was  sent 
to  the  National  Assembly  at  Cleveland,  and  there,  even  at  that  early 
stage,  a?  has  been  already  noted,  her  consummate  genius  for  leader- 
ship was  recognized.  She  was  made  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on 
Resolutions,  and  that  famous,  oft-quoted  resolution,  so  prophetic 
of  much  that  was  to  follow  in  our  after-history — Resolved,  That, 
recognizing  that  our  cause  is  and  will  he  combated  hy  mighty,  de- 
termined and  relentless  forces,  ice  will,  trusting  in  Him  who  is  the 
Prince  of  Peace,  meet  argument  with  argument,  misjudgment  with 
patience,  denunciation  with  kindness,  and  all  our  difficulties  and 
dangers  with  prayer — was  written  by  Miss  Willard. 

She  was  elected  to  the  National  Corresponding  Secretaryship  at 
^he  convention  of  1874,  which  position  she  held  three  years.  She 
was  afterward  elected  to  the  presidency  of  the  Illinois  State  Union, 
and,  at  the  Indianapolis  convention,  in  1879,  to  the  National  Presi- 
dency. To  this  latter  position  she  was  elected  at  nineteen  consecu- 
tive conventions,  the  last  at  Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  in  1897,  the  year  pre- 
ceding her  death. 

Concerning  Miss  Willard's  connection  with  the  work  of  the  or- 
ganization in  its  earlier  years,  I  quote  from  the  report  of  the  Na- 
tional Corresponding  Secretary  at  the  Baltimore  Convention,  in  the 
year  1895 : 

"In  1883,  Miss  Willard,  in  speaking  briefly  of  her  year's  work, 
says:  *It  will  thus  have  been  my  good  fortune  to  have  represented 
the  crusade  movement  in  every  one  of  the  forty-eight  States  and 
Territories  of  the  United  States  this  year.' 

"Mrs.  Buell,  Corresponding  Secretary  for  fourteen  years,  in  her 
report  for  the  same  year,  says :  'In  March  last  our  president  turned 
her  face  westward,  and  everywhere  she  went  new  organizations  were 
formed  and  old  ones  received  new  life.  Such  a  trip  as  this  made  by 
Miss  Willard  the  world  had  never  thought  of.  Going  without  money 
and  without  price,  without  advance  agents  except  the  messages 
Uncle  Sam  might  have  carried  for  any  other,  yet  the  enthusiasm  of 


TEMPERANCE.  397 

her  welcome  was  more  than  anything  ever  before  accorded  to  any 
other,  not  excepting  the  President  of  the  United  States.' 

"In  the  President's  x\nnual  Address  of  1884  I  find  this  incidental 
remark:  *ln  the  twenty  State  conventions  in  my  itinerary  this 
year  I  have  urged  plans  of  finance,  etc' 

"In  1890,  Mrs.  Buell,  in  her  admirable  review  of  the  ten  yeare 
just  passed,  says:  'Since  1880  our  president  has  made  a  tour  of 
every  State  and  Territory,  and  the  Dominion  of  Canada;  Alaska 
alone  remaining  as  the  sole  bit  of  territory  in  which  her  voice  has 
not  been  heard.' 

"These  things  being  so,  is  it  any  wonder  that  from  the  vast  ma- 
jority of  the  states  to  which  I  sent  the  question,  'By  whom  was 
the  W.  C.  T.  U.  introduced  into  your  State?'  all  the  Southern  and 
most  of  the  Southwestern  and  Western — yes,  and  some  of  the  East- 
ern— the  answer  has  been,  'The  work  was  introduced  into  our  State 
by  Miss  Willard.'  We  know  something  of  the  history  of  those  tire- 
less years,  in  which  her  home  was  a  railroad  train  and  her  insepara- 
ble companion  a  grip-sack.  We  know  that  not  even  those  weary 
journeys  were  allowed  to  interrupt  her  labor  of  brain  and  pen,  since 
the  fingers  might  have  been  seen  constantly  flying  over  the  writing- 
tablet,  be  the  road  rough  or  smooth.  We  know  that  many  of  the 
strongest  bugle  notes  which  have  roused  the  world  to  action  came 
into  being  under  such  conditions 

"But  her  marvelous  work  as  an  organizer  is  by  no  means  all  which 
has  been  made  manifest  to  my  mind  through  these  yearly  records.  I 
have  found  that  the  tabulated  suggestions  of  the  past  fifteen  years 
contain,  in  prophecy,  the  history  of  well-nigh  all  our  advance  steps. 
Her  eyes  have  seen  the  substance  'yet  being  unperfect,'  and  in  her 
heart,  and  on  her  brain,  department  after  department,  advance  plan 
and  new  method  have  been  constantly  written,  'when  as  yet  there 
was  none  of  them.'  And  what  she  has  seen  she  has  dared  to  do. 
Not  alone  the  seer's  vision,  but  the  hero's  courage  has  she  shown 
through  all  these  years.  Who  led  in  the  struggle  for  the  adoption 
of  the  Franchise  Department  as  a  part  of  our  work?  Who  saw, 
almost  alone,  this  new  star  in  the  east  and  followed  it,  so  bravely, 
so  truly,  and  withal  so  reverently,  that  we  could  not  fail  to  see  how, 
in  very  truth,  it  stood  over  each  home?" 

To  Miss  Willard's  busy  brain  and  far-roaohing  influence  i.s  due 
the  organization  of  the  World's  Woman's  Christian  Tcmporancc 
Union.     She  first  conceived  the  idea  of  federating  the  women  of  the 


398  CHRISTENDOM. 

world  together,  and,  by  her  persuasion  and  efforts,  the  first  Round- 
the- World  missionary,  Mrs.  Mary  Clement  Leavitt,  of  Boston,  was 
sent  out.  Mrs.  Leavitt  spent  eight  years  abroad,  and  visited  nearly 
all  the  countries  of  Europe  and  Asia  in  the  interests  of  the  Woman's 
Christian  Temperance  Union.  She  carried  with  her  the  blanks  of 
the  Polyglot  petition,  itself  an  emanation  of  Miss  Willard's  thought, 
addressed  to  the  governments  of  the  world,  urging  that  the  traffic 
in  alcohol  and  other  narcotics  be  prohibited  within  the  bounds  of 
their  jurisdiction.  This  petition,  at  its  first  formal  presentation, 
before  President  Cleveland,  in  Washington,  in  February,  1894,  had 
attained  the  gigantic  total  of  1,121,200  names.  It  has  since  been 
presented  to  Queen  Victoria  and  to  the  Premier  of  Canada,  Sir  Wil- 
fred Laurier. 

Six  Round-the-World  missionaries  have  succeeded  Mrs.  Leavitt 
— Miss  Jessie  Ackermann,  who  has  twice  girdled  the  globe,  who  or- 
ganized and  was  the  first  president  of  the  Australasian  Woman's 
Christian  Temperance  Union;  Dr.  Kate  Bushnell  and  Mrs.  Eliza- 
beth Wheeler  Andrew,  who  worked  chiefly  in  the  purity  work  of 
India ;  Miss  Alice  Palmer,  who  spent  several  years  in  South  Africa ; 
Miss  Clara  Parrish,  who  did  most  effective  work  in  Japan  and  Bur- 
ma ;  Mrs.  J.  K.  Barney,  who,  having  circled  the  globe,  is  now  doing 
organizing  work  in  Cuba  and  Porto  Eico ;  Misses  Vincent  and  Cum- 
mins, of  Australia,  who  are  now  working  in  Great  Britain,  and  Mrs. 
Addie  Northam  Fields,  who  organized  the  Woman's  Christian  Tem- 
perance Union  in  the  Bermuda  Islands,  and  is  now  working  in 
Mexico. 

One  of  the  sweetest  fruits  which  came  into  Miss  Willard's  life 
through  the  World's  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union  was  her 
friendship  with  Lady  Henry  Somerset,  the  gifted  English  noble- 
woman who — brought  to  the  reform  through  a  common  sympathy 
— became  ]\Iiss  Willard's  life-long  friend.  The  later  years  of  her 
life  were  spent,  largely,  in  Lady  Henry  Somerset's  beautiful  home, 
either  at  Eastnor  Castle  or  at  The  Priory,  Reigate;  here,  together 
they  planned  largely  for  the  great  work,  as  well  as  took  sweet  coun- 
sel of  personal  friendship.  Lady  Henry  Somerset,  as  Vice-Presi- 
dent of  the  World's  Union,  became  Acting  President  on  Miss  Wil- 
lard's death.  At  the  last  convention  she  was  unanimously  elected 
to  the  presidency.  Mrs.  L.  M.  N.  Stevens,  President  of  the  Wom- 
an's Christian  Temperance  Union  of  the  United  States,  was  elected 
vice-president;  Miss  Agnes  Slack,  of  England,  and  Miss  Anna  A. 


TEMPERANCE.  399 

Gordon,  of  America,  are  the  secretaries,  and  Mrs.  Sanderson,  of 
Canada,  is  the  treasurer. 

The  first  World's  Convention  of  the  Woman's  Christian  Temper- 
ance Union  was  held  in  Fancuil  Hall,  Boston,  in  the  year  1891. 
Four  conventions  have  since  taken  place — in  Chicago,  1893 ;  London, 
1895;  Toronto,  1897,  and  Edinburgh,  1900.  At  the  Edinburgh 
convention  delegates  were  present  from  forty  affiliated  countries,  and 
requests  were  presented  from  six  nations,  that  l\ound-the-World  mis- 
sionaries be  sent  them,  to  gather  the  women  together  in  local  unions, 
for  more  effective  work.  And  this  great  and  far-reaching  work  of 
the  World's  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union  is,  even  more 
fully  than  the  work  of  her  own  National  Union  of  the  United  States 
— since  to  her  came  its  first  inspiration — the  work  of  and  the  monu- 
ment to  Frances  E.  Willard. 

The  chief  advance  of  the  National  Union  since  1874  has  been 
along  two  lines;  that  of  organization  and  increase  of  membership, 
and  of  enlargement  of  the  scope  of  its  work.  One  after  another 
kindred  reforms  have  been  found  to  have  such  a  close  relation  to  the 
work  of  temperance,  that  room  has  been  made  for  them  in  the  so- 
ciety's programme.  The  "Do  Everything  Policy"  came  about  by 
natural  evolution.  Purity,  Woman's  Suffrage,  Prohibition,  Anti- 
narcotics,  and  other  subjects,  were  seen  to  be  in  such  vital  alliance  to 
the  central  thought  of  purified  homes,  and  a  saved  nation,  that  they 
were  recognized  as  legitimate  parts  of  the  main  campaign. 

To  quote  from  the  report  of  the  year  1895 : 

"The  'Do  Everything  Policy'  is  a  profoundly  philosophical  recog- 
nition of  the  Divine  principles  of  evolution  and  solidarity.  We 
have  not  left  behind  our  first  principles  of  total  abstinence  and  pro- 
hibition, because  so  many  other  lines  of  work  have  been  evolved. 
We  could  not  leave  them  behind  if  we  would.  They  are -the  founda- 
tion stones  upon  which  our  fair  structure  of  the  future  is  to  be 
reared.  But  just  as  no  building  rises  to  its  completion  through  its 
foundation  stones  alone,  so  we  have  found,  not  alone  room  for,  but 
need  of,  many  another  material;  and  see  with  increasing  clearness  of 
vision  that  many  others  must  be  used  before  the  cap-stone  shall  be 
laid  with  shoutings  of  'Grace,  grace  unto  it !'  All  that  has  boon 
added  has  been  by  growth  from  within  outward;  it  has  boon  the 
natural  unfolding  of  the  seed  planted  twenty-four  years  ago.  'First 
the  blade,  then  the  ear;  after  that  the  full  corn  in  the  car.'  It 
surely  does  not  lessen,  but  rather  heightens  the  glory  of  the  crusade. 


400  CHKISTENDOM. 

to  believe  that  out  of  it  has  grown  something  infinitely  grander,  and 
that  this  outgrowth,  too,  is  but  the  prophecy  of  a  grander  yet  to  come. 
'Forgetting  the  things  that  are  behind,'  of  achievement  as  well  as 
of  failure,  humanity's  only  safeguard  must  lie  in  a  continual  press- 
ing forward;  and  'this  one  thing'  we  of  the  Woman's  Christian 
Temperance  Union  will  'do,'  God  being  our  helper." 

To-day,  after  twenty-seven  years  of  existence,  the  National  Wom- 
an's Christian  Temperance  Union  of  the  United  States  is  organized 
in  every  state  and  territory;  indeed,  it  has  outgrown  the  natural 
limits  of  states  and  territories,  and  inclusive  of  the  colored  unions 
of  the  Southern  States,  and  the  two  organizations  which,  for  con- 
venience's sake,  exist  in  California  and  Washington,  we  count  sixty- 
two  auxiliary  unions;  fifty-four  are  state,  six  are  territorial,  and 
the  two  others  are  the  District  of  Columbia  and  Hawaii  unions. 
Work  is  also  being  carried  forward  in  the  Philippines  and  in  Porto 
Rico.  There  are  at  least  ten  thousand  local  unions  in  these  several 
states  and  territorial  unions,  and,  during  the  last  year,  an  increase 
was  made  in  membership  of  about  fifteen  thousand. 

There  are  thirty-nine  distinct  departments  of  work,  at  the  head 
of  each  one  of  which  stands  a  National  Superintendent,  who  has  as- 
sociated with  herself  a  corps  of  associates,  lecturers  and  helpers. 
There  are  twenty-two  national  organizers,  fourteen  national  lec- 
turers, and  twenty  national  evangelists.  These  several  classes  of 
women  include  many  names  which  have  won  a  wide  reputation — in 
many  instances  world-wide,  for  eloquence,  executive  ability  and  pow- 
er of  leadership.  It  would  seem  invidious  to  single  out  names 
where  so  many  have  won  for  themselves  renown  and  where  it  is  so 
manifestly  impossible  to  mention  all,  but  the  story  of  the  Woman's 
Christian  Temperance  Union  of  America  would  be  incomplete  with- 
out mention  of  Mother  Stewart,  the  brave  Ohio  leader ;  Mother  Wal- 
lace, Mrs.  Mary  A.  Livermore,  Mrs.  Mary  A.  Woodbride,  Mrs.  Mary 
T.  Lathrap,  Miss  Mary  Allen  West,  who  fell  at  her  post  in  Japan ; 
the  Round-the- World  missionaries;  Mrs.  Clara  C.  Hofllman,  Mrs. 
Lillian  M.  N.  Stevens,  Miss  Anna  A.  Gordon,  for  twenty-one  years 
Miss  Willard's  private  secretary;  Mrs.  Fry,  the  present  Correspond- 
ing Secretary ;  Mrs.  Helen  M.  Barker,  the  National  Treasurer,  and 
a  hundred  others.  Indeed,  there  is  hardly  a  state  or  territorial 
union  which  has  not  furnished  names  which  will  be  forever  remem- 
bered for  the  work  their  owners  have  wrought  for  humanity  through 
the  agency  of  this  organization. 


LADY   HENRY   SOMERSET. 


TEMPERANCE.  401 

"The  results?  Laws  upon  the  statute  books  of  every  State  in  our 
Union  save  three  [since  changed  to  one],  requiring  scientific  teach- 
ing to  the  pupils  of  our  public  schools  of  the  effects  of  alcohol  and 
other  narcotics,  and  an  ever-increasing  army  of  earnest  allies  in  the 
teachers  of  our  land,  who  are  eager  to  aid  in  the  enforcement  of  those 
laws.  The  results?  The  raising  of  the  age  of  protection  for  our 
daughters  in  nearly  every  State  in  the  Union,  and  whole  floods  of 
light  thrown  upon  the  subject  of  purity  in  its  relation  to  the  home, 
and  its  relation  to  the  individual.  The  results?  Time  and  space 
forbid  their  enumeration.  Listen  to  the  tramp  of  three  hundred 
thousand  children  of  the  Loyal  Temperance  Legion  as  they  keep 
step  to  the  inspiring  words  of  our  great  leader :  'Saloons  must  go.' 
Go  into  the  Sunday-schools  of  our  land  where  temperance  princi- 
ples are  taught;  go  into  the  houses  of  refuge,  where  hundreds  and 
hundreds  of  poor,  betrayed  girls  and  heart-broken  women  have  been 
lifted  up  into  new  life ;  go  down  into  the  mines,  into  our  prisons,  our 
jails,  and  our  almshouses;  up  into  the  lumber  camps,  into  our 
camps  of  war  and  our  ships  at  sea;  stop  at  Castle  Garden,  where 
our  missionary  meets  the  immigrant  and  puts  literature  into  his 
hand,  which  in  many  instances  has  reached  both  head  and  heart ; 
go  into  the  sunny  Southland  and  see  the  noble  bands  of  colored 
women  who  are  taking  up  our  work  and  pledging  themselves  to  the 
redemption  of  their  race  from  a  bondage  far  worse  than  slavery; 
enter  our  well-nigh  numberless  Gospel  temperance  and  evangelistic 
meetings,  in  which  so  many  prodigals  are  turning  back  to  the  Fath- 
er's house ;  see  our  brave  bands  of  organizers,  lecturers  and  evange- 
lists as  they  go  patiently  forth  on  their  toilsome  errands,  daring 
summer's  heat  and  winter's  cold ;  see  how  the  table  of  our  Lord  has 
been  practically  freed  from  the  cup  which  means  death ;  see  how  the 
press  is  responding  to  the  call  for  a  higher  expression  of  the  life  of 
the  American  people;  see  how  art  and  literature  are  being  purified; 
principles  of  mercy  taught  and  peace  inculcated;  read  the  Gospel 
of  woman's  enfranchisement,  as  it  is  written  in  literature,  upon  the 
pulpits  from  which  she  ministers  and  in  the  repealing  of  countless 
iniquitous  laws,  as  well  as  in  the  four  fair  States  in  which  full  suf- 
iva^re  has  been  granted  her.  Ecad  our  advance  as  recorded  in  the 
treatment  of  diseases  without  the  use  of  alcohol;  read  it  in  the 
healthful  pages  of  the  temperance  literature  sent  forth,  and  in 
countless  other  forms  which,  for  lack  of  space,  cannot  be  mentioned, 
if  you  would  know  some  of  the  results. 


402  CHRISTENDOM. 

"But  even  in  all  these  you  can  catch  but  a  faint,  fleeting  shadow 
of  the  real  substance,  for,  like  the  Kingdom  of  God,  of  which  it  ia 
a  vital  part,  the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union  'cometh  not 
with  observation.'  It  is  not  a  thing  accomplished,  it  is  the  subjective 
state  of  mind  and  soul  which  must  lie  back  of  all  accomplishment, 
and  greater  than  anything  it  has  done  or  can  do  must  remain  the 
fact  that  it  is — an  army  of  light-bearers,  a  company  of  seers,  an  ex- 
ponent of  the  life-principle  of  love  wrought  out  in  divinest  activi- 
ties. Who  shall  set  limits  to  the  results  flowing  from  such  an  organ- 
ization ?" 

On  the  17th  of  February,  in  the  year  1898,  came  the  saddest  event 
which  the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union  had  ever  known 
— to  which  allusion  has  been  already  made — the  death  of  Frances 
Willard.  Greater  honors  were  paid  to  her  in  her  death  than  had 
ever  before  been  paid  to  any  woman,  unless  to  some  queen.  Her 
funeral  journey  extended  from  New  York  City  to  Chicago ;  and  not 
this  nation  alone,  but  the  entire  world  mourned. 

At  the  convention  in  Cleveland,  three  years  before.  Miss  Willard, 
through  a  constitutional  change  enabling  her  to  do  this,  had  ap- 
pointed Mrs.  Lillian  M.  N.  Stevens,  for  more  than  twenty  years  the 
president  of  the  Maine  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union,  and 
for  years  one  of  the  Eecording  Secretaries  of  the  National  Union, 
as  vice-president  at  large.  The  wisdom  of  the  choice  was  soon  ap- 
parent. Mrs.  Stevens  brought  to  the  difficult  post  to  which  she 
was  so  suddenly  and  so  unwillingly  elevated,  all  the  accumulated 
wisdom  of  her  long  years  of  faithful  and  devoted  service.  She  was 
very  soon  called  upon  to  test  her  courage  and  fibre,  and  she  stood 
the  test  in  such  a  manner  as  to  make  all  feel  that  the  helm  of  the 
good  ship  W.  C.  T.  U.  was  in  safe  hands.  At  the  St.  Paul  conven- 
tion, in  the  following  October,  she  was  elected,  with  a  practical 
unanimity  of  choice,  to  the  position  of  president  of  the  National 
Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union.  Miss  Anna  A.  Gordon  was 
at  the  same  convention  elected  vice-president  at  large;  Mrs.  Su- 
sanna M.  D.  Fry  was  elected  to  the  position  of  corresponding  sec- 
retary, made  vacant  by  the  resignation  of  the  writer,  who  had  filled 
the  position  for  four  years ;  Mrs.  Clara  C.  Hoffman  and  Mrs.  Frances 
E.  Beauchamp  were  re-elected  as  recording  secretaries,  and  Mrs. 
Helen  M.  Barker,  for  the  fifth  time  as  national  treasurer.  The 
same  women  are  holding  these  offices  to-day. 

The  last  National  Convention  was  held  in  Washington,  D.  C, 


TEMPERANCE.  403 

November  30  to  December  7,  1900.  It  was  the  largest  that  has  yet 
been  held,  and  its  results  upon  the  organization  throughout  the 
country  promise  to  be  far-reaching  and  lasting.  Twelve  states — 
Iowa,  New  York,  West  Washington,  Maine,  Ohio,  Southern  Cali- 
fornia, Connecticut,  Virginia,  Vermont,  Michigan,  New  Hampshire 
and  West  Virginia — had  all  made  a  gain  of  five  hundred  or  more  in 
membership.  The  convention  pledged  the  union  to  work  along  the 
lines  of  organization  and  increase  of  membership;  the  instructing 
and  building  up  of  unions  by  means  of  courses  of  study  and  Wom- 
an's Christian  Temperance  Union  Institutes;  renewed  efforts  for 
the  increased  circulation  of  the  official  organ,  "The  Union  Signal," 
and  the  circulation  of  other  temperance  literature;  a  voluntary 
thank-offering  on  the  part  of  the  unions  and  individuals,  to  be  given 
on  or  near  February  17th,  of  two  dollars  or  more,  as  a  Memorial 
Fund  to  Miss  Willard,  to  be  used  in  organizing  and  strengthening 
the  work  to  which  she  gave  her  life ;  special  work  in  our  new  national 
possessions,  for  young  women,  and  in  the  promulgation  of  the  truths 
of  non-alcoholic  medication;  and  for  immediate  action,  petitions  and 
personal  influence  in  favor  of  the  reform  bills  in  Congress,  espec- 
ially all  national  and  state  bills  looking  toward  the  abolition  of 
liquor  selling.  One  of  the  most  notable  victories  ever  won  by  the 
organization  was  the  second  Anti-Canteen  Bill,  which  passed  the 
House  of  Representatives  while  the  last  convention  was  in  session, 
the  success  of  which  is  largely  attributed  to  the  influence  of  the 
Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union.  The  victory  over  polygamy, 
as  represented  in  Brigham  H.  Roberts,  is  also,  by  common  consent, 
attributed  largely  to  the  work  of  the  women  of  the  country,  with  the 
Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union  at  their  head. 

I  cannot  better  close  this  necessarily  imperfect  sketch  than  by  two 
quotations,  the  first  from  the  Annual  Address  of  Miss  Willard  before 
the  Boston  National  Convention,  in  1891 ;  the  second  from  tbe  Ad- 
dress of  Mrs.  Mary  T.  Lathrap,  before  the  first  National  Council 
of  Women,  in  Washington,  D.  C,  1890 : 

"The  hands  that  wave  these  snowy  salutes  of  welcome  have  been 
placed  on  the  heads  of  little  children,  of  whom  we  have  three  hun- 
dred thousand  in  our  Loyal  Temperance  Legion ;  they  have  given  out 
total  abstinence  pledges  to  a  million  tempted  mon  ;  they  have  pinnc^d 
the  ribbon— white,  as  a  talisman  of  purity— above  the  hearts  of  ton 
thousand  tempted  prodigals ;  they  have  carried  bread  to  the  hun- 
gry, and  broken  the  bread  of  life  to  those  who  were  most  hungry 


404  CHRISTENDOM. 

of  all  for  that,  although  they  knew  it  not.  These  hands  have  car- 
ried petitions  for  the  protection  of  the  home,  for  the  preservation  of 
the  Sabbath,  for  the  purification  of  the  law,  and  during  seventeen 
years  of  such  honest,  hard  work  as  was  almost  never  equaled,  they 
have  gathered  not  fewer  than  twenty  million  names  to  these  peti- 
tions. These  faces  have  bent  over  the  bedsides  of  the  dying,  for 
whose  souls  no  one  seemed  to  care;  they  have  illumined  with  the 
light  that  never  shone  on  land  or  sea,  many  a  dark  tenement  house 
in  attic  or  cellar ;  they  have  gleamed  like  stars  of  hope  in  the  slums 
of  our  great  cities.  These  voices  have  sung  songs  of  deliverance  to 
the  prisoner  in  ten  thousand  jails  and  almshouses;  they  have  brought 
a  breath  of  cheer  into  police  courts,  bridewells  and  houses  of  deten- 
tion all  around  the  world. 

"These  willing  feet  are  more  familiar  with  rough  than  with 
smooth  pavements.  They  know  the  by-ways  better  than  the  high- 
ways. If  their  errands  could  be  set  in  order  they  would  read  like 
the  litanies  of  God's  deliverance  to  those  bound  in  the  chains  of 
temptation,  sorrow  and  sin.  Some  touch  of  all  that  you  have  seen 
and  done  chastens  each  forehead  and  hallows  every  face.  God  has 
helped  us  to  build  better  than  we  knew.  If  these  women  had  their 
way  (and  they  intend  to  have  it),  the  taint  of  alcohol  and  nicotine 
would  not  be  on  any  lip  nor  on  any  atmosphere  of  city,townorvillage 
on  this  globe.  If  they  had  their  way  (and  they  intend  to  have  it), 
no  gambler  could  with  impunity  pursue  his  vile  vocation.  If  they 
could  have  their  way  the  haunts  of  shame  that  are  the  zero  mark  of 
degradation  would  be  crusaded  out  of  existence  before  sundown,  and 
the  industrial  status  of  women  would  be  so  independent  that  these 
recruiting  officers  of  perdition  would  seek  in  vain  for  victims.  If 
you  could  have  your  way,  the  saloon  keeper  would  become,  in  every 
etate  and  nation ! — as,  thank  God,  he  is  already  in  so  many — an  out- 
cast, an  Ishmaelite,  a  social  pariah  on  the  face  of  the  earth ;  for  you 
do  not  seek  the  regulation  of  the  traffic,  nor  its  prohibition  even,  but 
its  annihilation.  You  stand  for  prohibition  by  law,  prohibition  by 
politics,  prohibition  by  woman's  ballot,  and  all  these  three  are  but 
parts  of  one  tremendous  whole." 

"No  association  of  philanthropic  workers  has  touched  so  many 
springs  of  praise  and  blame,  love  and  hate,  and  become  equally  dis- 
tinguished for  the  friends  it  has  won,  and  the  enemies  it  has  made, 
and  the  proof  of  the  effectiveness  of  the  mission  it  has  undertaken  is 
easy  to  find  on  the  very  surface  of  things.     Cursed  at  the  bar  of  the 


TEMPERANCE.  405 

legalized  dram  shop;  hissed  on  the  floor  of  the  Beer  Brewers'  Con- 
gress; scorned  by  conventions  of  political  parties;  misrepresented  by 
the  all-powerful  press;  denied  its  prayers  in  the  halls  of  legislation; 
sneered  at  in  palaces  of  fashion,  whore  the  wine-glass  tempts  to 
destroy;  criticised  by  conservative  pulpits,  and  unwelcome  often  in 
the  Christian  Church,  it  has  been  left  to  this  organization  of  ballot- 
less  women  to  arouse  all  classes  of  opposers,  and  find  for  themselves 
the  hate  of  hate.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  blessed  by  the  fevered  lips 
of  the  drunkard  ready  to  perish;  sought  by  the  wandering  feet  of 
the  boy  or  girl  who  went  astray;  hallowed  by  loving  thoughts  at 
thousands  of  firesides ;  baptized  with  holy  tears  by  the  mothers  whose 
battles  it  wages;  perfumed  by  the  stainless  prayers  of  little  children; 
endorsed  by  the  expressed  principles  of  ors:anized  Christianity;  sus- 
tained by  the  highest  and  freshest  authorities  in  the  scientific  world ; 
praised  by  lips  grown  careful  through  statesmanlike  speech ;  believed 
in  by  the  best,  trusted  by  the  most  needy,  it  has  been  granted  us,  also, 
to  fiiid  the  aove  of  love.'  " 

********* 

It  was  not  on  the  field  of  battle, 

It  was  not  with  a  ship  at  sea, 
But  a  fate  far  worse  than  either 

That  stole  him  away  from  me. 
'Twas  the  death  in  the  tempting  dram 

That  the  reason  and  senses  drown ; 
He  drank  the  alluring  poison, 

And  thus  my  boy  went  down. 

Down  from  the  heights  of  manhood 

To  the  depths  of  disgrace  and  sin ; 
Down  to  a  worthless  being. 

From  the  hope  of  what  might  have  been. 
For  the  brand  of  a  beast  besotted 

He  bartered  his  manhood's  crown ; 
Through  the  gate  of  a  sinful  pleasure 

My  poor,  weak  boy  went  down. 

'Tis  only  the  same  old  story. 

That  mothers  so  often  tell. 
With  accents  of  infinite  sadness. 

Like  the  tones  of  a  funeral  bell : 
But  I  never  thought  onf^e,  when  I  heard  It, 

I  should  learn  all  its  moaning  myself; 
I  thought  hod  be  true  to  his  mother, 

I  thought  he'd  be  true  to  himself. 


406 


CHEISTENDOM. 


But,  alas !  for  my  hopes,  all  delusion ! 

Alas  !  for  his  youthful  pride  ! 
Alas !  who  are  safe  when  danger 

Is  open  on  every  side? 
Oh,  can  ncthine  destroy  this  great  evil? 

Nor  bar  in  its  pathway  be  thrown. 
To  save  from  the  terrible  maelstrom 

The  thousands  of  boys  going  down? 

— Unidentified.- 


-Ed. 


THE  WORLD-WIDE  STUDENT  MOVEMENT.* 


John  R.  Mott,  M.A., 

NEW  YORK. 

[A  few  months  before  his  death,  Mr.  Moody  said  to  me  that,  from  a  relig- 
ious point  of  view,  he  loolied  upon  our  colleges  as  the  most  hoppful  field  in 
all  the  world.  The  colleges  and  universities  constitute,  without  doubt,  the 
most  religious  communities  in  our  country.  Taking  the  young  men  of  America 
as  a  whole,  not  more  than  one  in  twelve  are  members  of  evangelical  churches. 
Some  have  placed  the  proportion  as  low  as  one  in  twenty.  Among  students, 
however,  nearly  one-half  of  the  young  men  are  members  of  evangelical 
churches.  The  proportion  among  the  women  students  is  larger.  Among 
professors  and  instructors  the  percentage  of  evangelical  Christians  is  far 
larger  even  than  it  is  among  the  students.  This  is  true  in  state  and  other 
undenominational  colleges,  as  well  as  in  denominational  institutions. 

A  still  more  striking  fact  is  that  the  proportion  of  Christian  students  in 
our  colleges  is  larger  than  it  ever  was.  An  eminent  clergyman  has  pointed  out 
that,  about  a  hundred  years  ago,  there  was  but  one  professing  Christian 
student  at  Yale.  At  that  time,  in  a  number  of  other  colleges  with  Christian 
foundations,  there  were  but  small  groups  of  disciples  of  Jesus  Christ.  It 
would  be  difficult  to  name  half  a  dozen  colleges  of  which  the  same  thing  could 
now  be  said.  Six  years  ago  a  religious  census  was  taken  of  more  than  three 
hundred  American  colleges,  and  it  was  ascertained  that  of  the  seventy  thou- 
sand young  men  in  these  institutions  over  one-half  were  members  of  evan- 
gelical churches,  whereas,  a  quarter  of  a  century  previous,  not  more  than  one- 
third  of  the  male  students  in  these  colleges  were  professing  Christians.  Facts 
like  these  show  that  students  in  larger  numbers  relatively  than  ever  before 
acknowledge  Christ  as  Lord,  and  are  identified  with  His  church. 

Generally  speaking,  it  may  be  asserted  that  the  type  of  religious  life  of 
American  students  is  not  traditional.  They  do  not  hold  their  present  beliefs 
simply  because  they  have  inherited  them.  At  the  same  time,  they  do  attach 
great  weight  to  the  traditional  facts  and  statements  of  the  Christian  faith. 
They  are,  as  a  class,  loyal  to  the  great  verities  of  evangelical^  Christianity. 
Their  religious  belief  is  based  upon  a  personal  study  of  the  Christian  Scrip- 
tures and  evidences.  And  not  least  helpful  in  establishing  fheir  faith  has 
been  the  influence  of  the  presentation  and  study  of  the  facts  of  Christian 
missions. 

Their  religious  life,  therefore,  may  be  characterized  as  intellectual,  spiritual 
and  practical ;  the  typical  American  Christian  student  despises  cant  and 
hypocrisy,  and  desires,  above  all  else,  reality  in  his  Christian  experience.  He 
is  not  satisfied  to  limit  the  Bible  to  the  realm  of  thought  and  discussion  :  he 

♦Given  at  the  "International  Conference  of  Theological  Students,"  Alle- 
gheny, Pennsylvania,  November  1-4,  1900. 

407 


408  CHRISTENDOM. 

seeks  to  bring  it  to  bear  upon  his  life — to  help  him  in  his  battle  with  tempta- 
tion, to  enable  him  to  develop  strong  faith  and  a  symmetrical  character. 

Moreover,  he  is  not  content  to  keep  his  religion  to  himself.  He  recognizes 
the  force  of  Archbishop  Whately's  words :  "If  our  religion  is  not  true,  we 
ought  to  change  it ;  if  it  is  true,  we  are  bound  to  propagate  what  we  believe 
to  be  the  truth."  Therefore  he  unites  with  his  Christian  fellow-students  in 
an  organized  movement  to  make  Christ  known  in  his  college,  in  his  native 
land,  and  throughout  the  world. — John  R.  Mott  ;  "The  Sunday-School 
Times,"  January  19,  1901.— Ed.] 


One  time  when  Charles  Simeon,  who  was  such  a  spiritual  force 
in  Cambridge  University  many  years  ago,  saw  an  undergraduate 
entering  Trinity  Church  at  Cambridge,  he  said:  "There  come  six 
hundred  people."  Not  long  since,  Bismarck,  a  little  before  his  death, 
struck  off  this  remarkable  generalization  concerning  the  students  of 
Germany:  "One-third  of  the  students  of  Germany  break  down  as 
a  result  of  dissipation;  another  third  are  incapacitated  because  of 
overwork ;  the  remaining  third  govern  the  empire."  We  might  mul- 
tiply examples  of  this  kind  going  to  enforce  the  truth  of  the  state- 
ment that  the  universities  and  colleges  and  seminaries  teach  the 
teachers,  preach  to  the  preachers,  and  govern  the  governors.  They 
are,  indeed,  the  pivotal  points  in  civilization,  and  it  is  not  putting 
it  too  strongly  to  assert  that,  as  go  these  institutions  of  higher  learn- 
ing, so  inevitably  go  the  nations.  All  this  attaches  great  import- 
ance to  the  attitude  of  the  student  class  toward  Jesus  Christ.  Is 
Christ,  as  some  would  try  to  lead  us  to  believe,  losing  His  hold  on 
students,  or  are  they  year  by  year  in  greater  numbers  acknowledging 
Him  as  Lord  and  rendering  unto  Him  a  larger  obedience  ?  There 
could  be  no  more  important  question  for  us  to  consider  as  men  who 
are  to  become  leaders  in  the  church,  for  surely  nothing  more  con- 
cerns the  welfare  of  the  church  in  the  world  and  her  ultimate  tri- 
umph. 

There  are  different  ways  in  which  we  might  attempt  an  answer  to 
this  question,  but  possibly  one  of  the  most  satisfactory  will  be  to 
view  the  various  organizations  of  students  in  the  different  parts  of 
the  world,  organizations  which  hear  the  name  of  Christ  Himself. 
I  say  one  of  the  most  satisfactory  ways  of  approaching  the  ques- 
tion and  of  attempting  to  answer  it,  because  an  organization  puts  in 
tangible  form  what  men  are  thinking  about  and  what  they  believe. 
That  for  which  men  are  willing  to  go  on  record  pubhcly,  that  to 
which  they  lend  the  weight  of  their  influence,  that  to  which  they 


JOHN    K.    MOTT 


STUDENTS'    FEDERATION.  409 

give  time  and  money  and  earnest  advocacy,  puts  in  concrete  form 
what  men  are  thinking  about  and  what  they  believe.  In  this  re- 
view I  shall  try  to  give  an  up-to-date  statement  of  the  tendencies 
and  conditions  in  the  universities,  colleges  and  seminaries.  What 
I  shall  now  say  could  not  have  been  said  three  years  ago.  Much  of 
it  could  not  have  been  said  one  year  ago.  I  shall  try  to  avail  myself 
of  the  most  recent  information,  as  it  was  poured  in  upon  us  at  the 
memorable  conference  held  last  August  at  Versailles,  near  Paris, 
the  conference  of  the  World's  Student  Christian  Federation.  I  shall 
also  ask  your  permission  to  view  these  movements  somewhat  in  the 
order  in  which  it  was  my  privilege  to  study  the  conditions  of  stu- 
dent work  in  different  parts  of  the  world  even  before  many  of  these 
movements  came  into  existence. 


AMERICA. 

This  necessitates  our  commencing  on  this  continent,  and  it  isi 
fitting  that  we  do  so,  because,  strange  as  it  may  seem  to  us,  on  this 
continent — where  we  have  not  a  few  of  the  youngest  universities, 
colleges  and  seminaries  of  the  world — was  planted  and  has  been  de- 
veloped the  oldest  and  largest  Christian  student  movement  of  the 
world.  I  speak  of  the  Student  Young  Men's  Christian  Associa- 
tion movement  to  which  we  belong.  Twenty-three  years  ago,  when 
this  organization  began,  at  the  suggestion  of  the  students  of  Prince- 
ton, there  were  only  between  thirty  and  forty  Christian  organiza- 
tions of  students  in  the  United  States  and  Canada.  This  included 
all  that  were  in  any  sense  worthy  of  the  name.  Now  we  have  six 
hundred  and  fifty.  This  number  includes  our  Seminary  Section, 
as  well  as  the  sections  in  the  medical  colleges,  in  the  state  universi- 
ties, in  the  three  hundred  and  more  denominational  colleges  and 
other  higher  institutions,  in  the  normal  schools,  and  in  many  of  the 
fitting  schools  and  high  schools.  I  was  at  Yale  a  few  Jays  ago, 
and  learned  that  they  now  have  in  the  different  branches  of  the 
Young  Men's  Christian  Association  in  that  university  about  one 
thousand  members.  It  suggests  to  my  mind  that  we  only  had  a 
little  more  than  that  number  in  all  the  Christian  Associations  of 
North  America  twenty-three  years  ago,  when  this  movement  began. 
We  now  have  not  less  than  thirty-five  thousand  students  and  pro- 
fessors of  these  two  countries  who  count  it  a  privilege  to  identify 
themselves  with  this  organization  and  to  promote  what  it  standi 


4iO  CHRISTENDOM. 

for  in  the  world.  We  have  a  right  to  expect  that  such  a  combina- 
tion of  men  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ,  fused  together  by  His 
Ahnighty  Spirit,  will  be  used  by  Him  in  accomplishing  great  things 
for  the  Kingdom  of  Christ.  We  are  not  disappointed  in  our  expec- 
tation. Under  the  influence  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  using  these  so- 
cieties, very  nearly  fifty  thousand  students  have  been  led  to  become 
disciples  of  Jesus  Christ  as  their  Saviour  and  Lord  during  these 
twenty-three  years.  The  number  has  been  steadily  increasing,  so 
that  last  year  probably  a  little  over  three  thousand  of  these  men  of 
the  universities  and  colleges  entered  the  Christian  life  as  a  result 
of  the  public  meetings  and  the  personal  work  in  connection  with 
this  organization.  Last  year  witnessed  more  remarkable  and  per- 
vasive spiritual  awakenings,  even  in  some  of  the  most  difficult  fields, 
than  we  have  had  any  year  within  the  memory  of  the  most  of  us 
who  have  been  connected  with  the  colleges.  The  revival  in  Bible 
study  also  has  been  remarkable.  I  remember  when  I  left  college 
there  were  in  all  these  institutions  less  than  two  thousand  men  in 
voluntary  Bible  circles.  Last  year  we  had  over  fourteen  thousand. 
The  number  has  been  growing,  and  not  only  the  number,  but,  even 
more  important,  the  quality  of  the  work  has  been  constantly  im- 
proving. It  has  become  more  thorough,  more  systematic,  more 
progressive.  It  has  related  itself  to  the  daily  life,  the  doubts,  the 
temptations,  and  the  problems  concerning  life  work  of  students  as 
it  did  not  do  in  the  earlier  days,  except  in  rare  cases.  Something 
like  sixty-two  hundred  men,  according  to  our  records,  have  been 
influenced  by  the  Association  to  dedicate  their  lives  to  the  Chris- 
tian ministry.  I  suppose  we  would  agree  that  if  this  organization 
had  done  nothing  more  than  this — to  turn  the  steps  of  over  six 
thousand  men  into  this  most  influential  calling  of  men — it  would 
have  wrought  sufficient  to  have  justified  all  that  has  been  expended 
upon  it  in  supervision  and  money  and  time.  But  the  missionary 
movement  has  been  still  more  encouraging.  Beginning  in  the  form 
of  the  Student  Volunteer  Movement,  it  has  related  itself  organical- 
ly, still  working  under  that  name,  to  our  Young  Men's  Christian 
Associations.  Thousands  of  men  have  been  led  to  enroll  themselves 
as  volunteers  within  the  past  fourteen  years  alone,  and  more  than 
sixteen  hundred  of  these  volunteers  have  completed  their  prepara- 
tion and  have  gone  out  to  the  mission  fields  under  the  regular  mis- 
sionary societies  of  the  church,  a  larger  number  going  in  the  past 
four  years  than  in  the  preceding  nine  years. 


STUDENTS'    FEDERATION.  411 

Alongside  of  this  moveraent  among  the  young  men  has  been  de- 
veloped the  Student  Young  Women's  Christian  Association,  which 
has  wrought  wonders  among  the  women  students  of  tliis  country. 
I  do  not  now  pause  to  recount  the  exact  facts  of  this  organization, 
which  now  includes  over  thra^  hundred  and  fifty  colleges  and  schools 
with  a  membership  of  more  than  nineteen  thousand  college  women. 
It  may  be  stated,  considering  the  difficulties,  that  they  have  had 
even  more  striking  achievements  than  our  Young  Men's  Christian 
Association. 

GREAT  BRITAIN. 

I  leave  this  continent  and  take  you  with  me  to  the  British  Isles. 
The  British  College  Christian  Union  began  about  seven  years  ago 
with  seventeen  Christian  associations,  or  unions  among  students. 
There  are  now  one  hundred  and  thirty.  That  includes  all  of  the 
great  universities,  and  a  large  majority  of  the  influential  theological 
colleges  and  seminaries,  and  other  institutions  of  higher  learning. 
They  do  not  yet  address  themselves  as  a  movement  to  the  secondary 
or  preparatory  schools.  This  organization  of  Britain,  working  in 
recent  years  in  the  midst  of  conditions  which  are  certainly  more  dif- 
ficult tiian  those  of  a  new  country  like  Canada  or  the  United  States, 
has  accomplished  enough  already  to  demonstrate  convincingly  that 
God  is  in  their  work.  Take  the  matter  of  Bible  study.  I  well 
remember,  when  I  first  attended  one  of  their  conferences,  that  some 
leading  colleges  had  no  Bible  class.  It  would  be  difficult  to  men- 
tion a  college  of  importance  in  the  British  Isles  which  docs  not  now 
have  one  or  more  Bible  circles  as  the  result  of  the  work  of  this 
movement.  Last  year  they  had  two  thousand  students  gathered  in 
these  classes,  and^heir  whole  movement  has  in  it  now  over  four 
thousand  members.  This  is  a  remarkable  growth,  considering  that 
it  has  taken  place  within  seven  years.  The  Christward  tendency 
among  the  British  students  is  also  increasing.  Within  the  past  few 
vears  they  have  had  some  remarkable  spiritual  awakenings  in  their 
great  universities.  If  the  Spirit  of  Almighty  God  can  work  as  lie 
has  worked  in  these  universities,  it  ought  to  encourage  us  to  expect 
His  marvels  to  be  wrought  in  other  parts  of  the  student  world. 
When  the  Volunteer  Union  was  organized  in  Great  Britain  an  in- 
vestigation revealed  the  fact  that  only  about  three  hundred  Br.t.sh 
students  expected  to  be  foreign  missionaries.  They  now  have  on 
their  volunteer  roll  two  thousand  students,  and  of  that  number 


412  CHEISTEXDOM. 

fully  six  hundred  have  already  reached  the  mission  field — a  larger 
proportion  than  have  gone  out  from  the  North  American  movement. 
The  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  has  said  that  few  thin^  have  in- 
spired him  with  greater  hope  than  the  recent  uprising  of  university 
men  and  women  for  the  evangelization  of  the  world.  To  my  mind 
the  largest  result  of  the  British  movement  has  been  the  developing 
of  the  Lnter-collegiate  or  inter-university  consciousness  among  the 
British  universities  and  colleges.  Before  the  movement  had  its 
rise,  many  of  them  were  practically  isolated.  It  is  true  that  Oxford 
and  Cambridge  had  annual  conferences.  But  now  they  have  had 
linked  together  in  strong  organization  the  many  student  centres. 
When  we  think  of  what  Edinburgh  University  has  wrought  in  the 
history  of  the  world,  or  Oxford,  what  have  we  not  a  right  to  expect, 
and  what  does  not  our  faith  claim,  now  that  the  coming  Christian 
leaders  of  church  and  state  in  Oxford  and  Cambridge,  Edinburgh 
and  Glasgow,  St.  Andrews  and  Aberdeen,  Dublin  and  Belfast  and 
other  colleges  are  united  in  a  common  purpose  and  inspired  by  the 
same  great  objective?  What  may  it  not  mean  to  the  world-wide 
British  Empire,  and  through  that  empire,  to  the  unevangelized 
world  itself? 

GERMANY. 

We  go  next  to  the  great  land  of  universities,  Germany,  one  of  the 
difficult  fields  of  the  western  student  world.  The  work  there  began 
in  the  gymnasia  in  the  form  of  devotional  Bible  circles.  Some  said 
it  would  be  an  excellent  thing  if  we  could  have  a  similar  work  in 
the  universities.  While  people  were  expressing  their  doubts,  and 
were  discussing  the  matter,  God  was  solving  the  problem.  The  gym- 
nasia boys  finished  their  education,  entered  the  universities,  formed 
their  Bible  circles,  and  the  first  thing  we  knew  there  was  a  stu- 
dent movement  created  in  the  German  universities,  created  by  Al- 
mighty God  working  in  His  own  way.  There  are  now  Bible  circles 
in  seventeen  of  the  twenty-one  universities  of  Germany,  and  in  many 
of  the  gymnasia.  A  striking  thing  about  the  German  movement  is, 
that  every  member  of  it  belongs  to  a  Bible  circle.  I  wish  we  could 
say  that  of  the  theological  section  and  the  different  college  sections 
of  this  countrv.  You  ask  me :  "Are  the  students  of  Germanv  being: 
led  out  of  agnosticism  and  lives  of  sinfulness  into  the  Bible  faith  in 
Jesus  Christ?"  Last  year  witnessed  more  men  entering  the  King- 
dom of  God  as  the  result  of  the  work  of  the  German  movement  than 


STUDENTS'    FEDERATION.  413 

in  any  preceding  year  of  its  history.  A  German  graduate  said  to 
me:  "We  had  an  eminent  professor  who  attended  some  of  our 
circle  meetings,  and  as  a  result,  came  out  into  a  clear  faith  in 
Christ,"  and  he  remarked:  "He  came  like  a  little  child."  That 
is  the  way  they  will  all  come,  whether  they  are  the  professors  or  the 
students  in  Germany  or  in  other  lands.  It  is  only  when  they  be- 
come as  little  children  that  they  shall  see  the  way,  and  shall  have 
the  spirit  that  will  take  them  through  the  door. 

The  missionary  spirit  has  also  been  developing  in  the  German 
universities  under  the  influence  of  the  student  movement.  Now 
they  have  in  their  own  Student  Volunteer  Movement  nearly  one 
hundred  volunteers,  and  are  planning  to  have  a  convention  at  Halle 
next  year,  which  will  doubtless  be  the  greatest  student  missionary 
convention  ever  held  on  the  continent  of  Europe.  It  will  be  at- 
tended by  evangelical  students  from  all  parts  of  that  continent.  I 
do  not  know  how  these  facts  concerning  Germany  impress  you,  but 
I  have  found  few  things  in  all  my  experience  among  students  which 
have  given  me  more  hope.  When  we  remember  the  influence  that 
the  German  universities  have  had  in  the  history  of  the  church — that 
in  them  the  great  movements  like  the  Reformation  and  the  Pietist 
movement,  and  the  missionarv'  movement  of  modem  times,  in  a  very 
important  sense,  had  their  rise ;  when  we  remember  that  they  hold  a 
larger  influence  in  the  world  of  thought  to-day  than  any  other  na- 
tional group  of  universities  (I  include  their  theological  faculties 
as  well) ;  when  we  recall  their  terrible  moral  and  spiritual  condi- 
tion, as  some  of  us  have  had  an  opportunity  to  see  it  and  know  it, 
are  we  not  filled  with  gratitude  to  God,  that  He  by  His  mighty 
Spirit  has  been  pleased  to  move  again  in  these  universities,  calling 
them  into  life  and  action  even,  on  behalf  of  the  world's  evangeliza- 
tion ? 

SCANDINAVIA. 

The  Scandinavian  movement  is  also  of  recent  origin.  It  links 
together  the  Christian  societies  of  university  Christian  men  and 
women  of  Norway,  Sweden,  Denmark  and  Finland.  They  have 
their  international  conferences  every  two  or  three  years.  Three  or 
four  hundred  students  and  professors  assemble,  and  these  are  now 
among  the  most  notable  gatherings  hold  in  Europe.  As  the  result 
of  this  movement,  working  out  through  the  prayer  life  and  the 
consistent  living  of  the  members  of  the  local  organizations,  the  re- 


414  CHRISTENDOM. 

ligious  life  of  the  universities  of  Scandinavia  has  been  greatly  de- 
veloped and  quickened.  Bible  study  is  being  promoted.  Bible 
courses  are  being  prepared.  Work  is  being  carried  on  to  influence 
the  boys  in  the  gymnasia.  The  number  of  missionary  candidates 
is  increasing.  I  have  found  no  students  who  impressed  me  as  hav- 
ing greater  strength  than  the  Scandinavians.  1  admired  their  man- 
liness, their  thoroughness,  their  honesty  of  spirit  and  method.  They 
are  the  most  thorough  students  in  the  world.  A  man,  after  he  has 
taken  his  arts  course,  has  to  study  seven  to  ten  years  before  he  can 
graduate  in  medicine,  four  or  five  years  before  he  can  take  a  degree 
in  theology,  not  less  than  five  years  before  he  takes  it  in  law.  These 
men  go  in  training  and  stay  in  training,  and  come  out  thorough. 
They  also  have  the  missionary  spirit.  I  expect  not  one  of  the  larg- 
est, but  one  of  the  strongest  contingents  for  the  evangelization  of 
the  world  from  these  universities  of  the  Northlands. 

SWITZERLAND HOLLAND — FRANCE. 

I  shall  not  stop  to  relate  the  movement  in  the  Swiss  universities, 
more  than  to  say  that  it  has  right  of  way  in  French-speaking  Swit- 
zerland, and  is  just  now  beginning  to  develop  in  German-speaking 
Switzerland.  It  is  very  hopeful.  It  has  recently  secured  the  ser- 
vices of  an  able  man  as  traveling  secretary. 

Nor  shall  I  detain  you  to  speak  of  the  Dutch  Student  Christian 
Union,  although  it  is  one  of  the  most  interesting.  They  have  a 
Christian  organization  in  each  of  their  universities,  planted  as  the 
result  of  most  prayerful  effort,  and  in  the  face  of  difficulties  they 
are  doing  great  good.  The  missionary  idea  has  been  incorporated 
into  their  work  within  the  last  two  years. 

We  shall  not  delay  to  consider  the  student  movement  of  France — 
although  there  is  much  that  might  be  said  as  a  ground  of  encourage- 
ment— more  than  to  say  that  in  the  most  diflficult  field,  the  Uni- 
versity of  Paris,  they  now  have  an  association  numbering  nearly  two 
hundred  men.  The  work  has  spread  beyond  Paris,  until  it  is  now 
established  in  five  of  the  provincial  universities  of  France.  They 
have  their  missionary  department,  or  section  of  the  Student  Voiun- 
teer  Movement. 

EGYPT. 

On  our  way  to  the  Far  East  let  us  stop  in  Egypt  and  go  up  the 
Nile  valley,  and  look  for  a  moment  into  Assiout,  that  wonderful 


STUDENTS'    FEDEKATION.  416 

college  of  the  United  Presbyterian  Church.  It  seems  to  me  that  if 
foreign  missions  had  done  nothing  else  in  Egypt  than  to  plant  that 
college,  and  to  send  out  the  results  that  have  gone  from  it  within 
these  past  fifteen  or  twenty  years,  they  would  have  accomplished  a 
great  work.  How  it  inspired  me  to  meet  with  those  students  and 
professors  and  devoted  missionaries  who  have  planted  their  associa- 
tion !  When  I  was  there,  I  had  the  joy  of  leading  some  of  those 
young  men  to  devote  their  lives  to  Christian  work.  I  think  there 
were  about  twelve.  They  signed  a  little  volunteer  declaration  of 
their  own,  and  I  cherish  highly  among  my  effects  the  little  papers 
which  they  signed.  The  other  day  my  friend  Sallmon  was  induced, 
on  his  way  back  from  Australia  to  this  country,  to  touch  that  col- 
lege, and  he  brings  the  word  that  the  little  band  of  ten  or  twelve  has 
increased  to  eighty  men,  who  had  dedicated  their  whole  lives  to 
Christian  work  among  their  own  people.  It  shows  the  germinating 
and  dynamic  power  of  this  movement  under  the  influence  of  the 
Spirit  of  God. 

INDIA  AND  CEYLON. 

We  leave  these  inviting  fields,  and  hasten  on  to  India  and  Ceylon ; 
India,  that  great  country  !  Country  ?  Let  me  change  the  word  to 
continent.  It  is  a  continent  with  practically  as  many  people  as 
Europe,  with  many  more  lines  of  social  cleavage  than  Europe  has 
ever  knowm,  and  certainly  many  more  religions  than  Europe.  It 
is  a  vast  continent,  and  if  we  associate  with  it  Ceylon  and  Burma, 
we  find  three  hundred  millions  of  people.  Let  me  emphasize  the 
fact  that  the  student  class  holds  the  key  to  the  situation  in  British 
India.  There  are  about  one  hundred  thousand  young  men  in  the 
universities,  colleges,  and  other  higher  institutions,  including  the 
highest  classes  of  the  high  schools  of  India,  Ceylon  and  Burma.  As 
go  this  hundred  thousand  and  their  successors,  will  go  the  three 
hundred  millions  of  that  great  region  and  their  succes.^ors.  Some 
of  us  may  be  disposed  to  look  down  upon  those  Indian  students. 
No  man  who  has  seen  them,  or  worked  with  them,  will  do  so.  I 
have  never  been  harder  pressed  in  public  argument  or  private  inter- 
view than  by  those  keen,  subtle-minded  Mohammedan  students.  If 
you  are  disposed  to  look  down  upon  those  men  of  our  own  blood,  go 
with  me  to  Oxford  and  Cambridge,  and  sec  how  they  are  carrying 
off  their  share  of  the  university  honors. 

It  is  a  ripe  field  also.     The  student  movement  has  become  in- 


416  CHRISTENDOM. 

trenched  there.  It  began  with  a  little  group  of  Bocieties.  It  now 
includes  nearly  forty,  and  its  membership  embraces  the  great  univer- 
eity  centres  and  the  leading  missionary  schools  of  India  and  Ceylon. 
It  has  at  its  head  several  of  the  most  experienced  university  workers 
whom  we  have  been  able  to  send  out  from  the  United  States,  Can- 
ada, Great  Britain  and  Denmark.  There  are  in  all  about  ten  uni- 
versity men  who  have  dedicated  their  lives  to  molding,  and  guiding, 
and  energizing,  and  spreading  this  movement  on  lines  which  have 
been  wrought  out  in  more  favored  countries.  God  is  honoring  their 
efforts.  Their  opportunities  in  the  realm  of  Bible  study  are  limited 
only  by  their  time  and  strength.  The  way  men  will  gather  around 
them  to  learn  the  Word  of  God,  and  to  study  it  and  listen  to  lec- 
tures upon  it,  would  stimulate  some  of  us,  if  we  knew  the  facts,  to 
volunteer  for  foreign  service  in  India.  And  men  are  being  led  to 
Christ.  Henry  Martyn  maintained  that  he  would  about  as  soon 
expect  to  see  a  dead  body  rise  as  to  see  a  Brahmin  converted  to  Jesus 
Christ;  and  yet,  believe  me,  dead  bodies  are  rising  in  India  as  a 
result  of  this  movement,  as  well  as  the  result  of  educational  missions 
and  other  agencies,  so  that  not  a  year  passes  during  these  days  in 
which  strong  Brahmins,  Hindoos,  and  now  and  then  Mohammedans, 
are  not  led  out  into  a  saving  faith  in  Jesus  Christ.  Even  the  mis- 
sionary spirit  is  beginning  to  show  itself,  although  the  conditions  are 
very  difficult,  Take  Ceylon,  for  example.  Within  the  last  year 
and  a  little  over,  the  students  in  a  college  in  the  northern  part  of 
the  island  of  Ceylon  have  started  a  missionary  society,  and  have 
sent  one  of  their  own  graduates  to  work  among  their  own  race  in 
Southern  India.  They  have  caught  the  idea  of  Christ.  Let  us  hope 
and  pray  that  it  may  be  planted  and  germinate  in  every  one  of  these 
associations  in  India  and  Ceylon. 

AUSTRALASIA. 

We  might,  by  way  of  variety,  drop  down  into  the  Southern  Hem- 
isphere. It  involved  a  journey  of  fourteen  thousand  miles  for  me 
to  go  down  there  and  get  back  into  the  regular  circuit  that  is  usually 
taken  around  the  world.  I  did  not  wonder  at  it,  when  I  reached 
there,  that  God  had  taken  me  to  that  part  of  the  world.  I  found 
in  Australia  and  New  Zealand  and  Tasmania  a  country  as  large  as 
the  United  States  and  Canada,  with  a  population  nearly  as  large  as 
that  of  Canada,  a  people  combining  the  characteristics  which  mark 


SIR   WILFRID   LAWSON. 


STUDENTS'    FEDERATION.  417 

off  the  Canadians  and  the  Americans,  and  that  is,  by  the  way,  a 
strong  combination.  I  found  universities  there  that  stand  much 
higher  in  their  record  and  in  their  requirements  than  many  of  the 
universities  in  the  two  countries  that  we  represent  in  this  conference. 
These  universities  were  given  over  largely  to  secularism.  There 
were  only  five  religious  societies  among  them,  and  three  of  those 
did  not  bear  the  word  "Christian."  When  they  heard  what  the 
students  were  doing  in  Canada  and  Britain  and  the  United  States, 
their  appreciation  of  the  value  of  organization,  that  you  find  among 
Anglo-Saxons  everywhere,  responded  to  the  suggestion,  and  they 
began  to  organize,  and  had  some  twenty-five  societies  organized  as 
a  result  of  their  efforts  before  I  left.  That  number  has  since  in- 
creased to  forty-five.  Before  I  left  they  said :  "We  want  a  travel- 
ing secretary."  Sallmon,  the  Yale  secretary,  was  induced  to  go  out 
there.  He  has  returned  after  three  years'  labor,  in  which  he  has 
built  up  a  movement  which  will  compare  with  the  best  in  the  world. 
It  includes  all  the  universities,  theological  seminaries,  and  the  other 
separate  colleges.  I  did  not  find  a  Bible  class  among  students  in 
Australasia.  I  do  not  know  one  of  those  colleges  which  doois  not 
now  have  one  or  more  Bible  classes.  I  did  not  find  a  college  in 
which  I  could  discover  that  men  had  led  students  to  Jesus  Christ 
the  year  before.  It  would  be  difficult  to  find  any  prominent  institu- 
tion in  which  some  men  were  not  led  to  Jesus  Christ  last  year  by 
their  fellow  students.  I  found  only  nine  men  and  women,  I  think, 
who  were  expecting  to  be  foreign  missionaries.  They  have  now  a 
volunteer  roll  of  nearly  one  hundred,  and  of  that  number  at  least 
eleven  have  already  reached  the  foreign  field.  They  are  looking  out 
into  the  doorway  of  the  three  great  mission  fields  of  the  world, 
Africa,  India  and  China,  not  to  mention  the  East  Indies  and  the 
other  islands  of  the  Southern  Seas.  It  is  a  great  base  for  aggres- 
sive operations  for  the  evangelization  of  the  world.  _Wc  hated  to 
leave  that  country.  We  next  went  on  that  twenty-three  days'  jour- 
ney through  the  Philippines  until  we  came  to  China. 

CHINA. 

When  I  came  to  China,  I  came  to  the  country  which  impressed 
me  the  most  strongly  of  any  1  have  ever  visited.  You  ask  me  in 
what  respect.  Not  so  much  because  of  the  number  of  people; 
China  has  the  numbers,  there  is  no  doubt  about  that— I  was  never 


418  CHKISTENDOM. 

out  of  sight  of  a  living  Chinaman,  or  the  grave  of  a  dead  one;  not 
so  much  on  account  of  the  difficulties,  although  China  presents  the 
greatest  combination  of  difficulties  of  any  mission  field  I  have  ever 
visited,  not  excepting  the  Mohammedan  fields.  You  ask  what, 
then,  did  impress  me  so  much.  The  strength  of  the  Chinese  raoe. 
They  combine  the  characteristics  which  have  marked  the  greatest 
races  of  the  world — industry,  frugality,  patience,  tenacity,  great 
physical  vigor,  great  intellectual  vigor  as  well,  independence  and 
conservatism.  Some  one  pauses  and  says :  ''Is  that  the  China  that 
went  down  under  the  chariot  wheels  of  Japan  ?  Is  that  the  China 
before  which  during  these  days  are  permitted  to  gather  the  fleets 
of  Europe  and  America,  and  over  which  foreign  powers  are  already 
beginning  to  extend  their  zones  of  influence?"  No;  that  is  an  en- 
tirely different  China.  That  China  is  composed  of  the  officials. 
Who  are  the  officials  of  China?  They,  to  a  man,  belong  to  the 
literati.  Who  are  the  literati  of  China  ?  They  are  the  class  which 
have  passed  through  that  old  competitive  examination  system,  which 
has  in  it,  or.  has  had  in  it,  except  in  a  very  few  cases,  and  that  in 
recent  years,  no  modern  subjects  of  learning;  no  modern  science, 
no  political  economy  and  sociology,  no  history  of  other  countries, 
no  geography  of  other  countries  no  literature  of  other  countries, 
no  correct  idea  of  their  own  country  and  its  vast  make-up  and  pos- 
sibilities. Is  it  to  be  wondered  at  that  men  trained  in  that  way 
have  been  the  great  obstacle  in  the  way  of  its  progress?  You  ask 
me:  "What  is  the  hope  of  China?"  I  found  it  in  that  fringe  of 
modern  colleges  reaching  from  Canton  on  the  south  to  Tientsin  on 
the  north,  and  back  to  Peking,  and  a  very  few  in  the  interior.  These 
colleges,  planted  by  the  missionaries,  or  at  the  suggestion  of  the 
missionaries,  or  as  a  result  of  the  example  of  the  colleges  of  the  mis- 
sionaries, are  having  trained  in  them  natives,  the  leaders  of  the  new 
China.  What  shall  the  leadership  of  the  new  China  be?  That 
is  the  burning  question,  and  it  is  a  far  more  important  question 
than  whether  China  is  to  be  dismembered,  or  whether  she  is  to  pre- 
serve her  integrity.  One  thing  is  certain,  that  within  the  very  near 
future,  scores  of  modern  colleges  will  be  planted  in  the  provincial 
capitals  of  that  country  on  the  western  model.  In  them  will  be 
trained  many  of  the  leaders  of  the  new  China.  There  is  no  more 
important  question  before  the  Cliurch  of  Christ,  and  before  us, 
therefore,  as  ministers  of  the  church,  than  what  shall  this  leader- 
ship be.     Educational  missionaries  of  all  our  denominations  repre- 


STUDENTS'    FEDERATION.  419 

sented  in  China,  and  the  student  movement,  unite  in  saying  that 
that  leadership  must  be  made  Christian,  cost  what  it  may.  The 
missionaries  have  called  the  student  movement.  We  did  not  go  be- 
fore their  call.  They  united  in  a  call,  the  like  of  which  has  come 
from  few  fields.  To  show  the  way  they  regard  the  matter,  when  1 
had  the  privilege  of  being  there,  we  held  the  convention  to  form  the 
national  movement,  and  seventeen  college  professors  left  their  work 
for  from  one  to  three  weeks  to  come  down  to  Shanghai  and  lay  tlie 
foundation  of  this  Student  Young  Men's  Christian  Association. 
When  I  reached  China  there  were  eight  associations.  Now  we  have 
forty-four;  and  five  of  our  university  men,  whom  we  delight  to 
honor — Lyon,  Brockman,  Gailey,  Lewis  and  Southam — are  in  the 
leadership  of  this  work,  and  are  developing  natives  who  will  carry 
on  these  associations  and  make  this  organization  indigenous  to  the 
soil.  God  is  using  this  movement.  They  had  the  greatest  revivals 
in  the  history  of  the  colleges  of  China  last  year;  a  revival  which, 
as  some  of  us  look  at  it  now,  was  meant  to  nerve  our  fellow  students 
there  for  the  fearful  ordeal  before  them.  And  down  in  the  Fukien 
Province  they  had  a  revival  only  a  few  months  ago,  in  which  scores 
of  students  were  led  into  the  Christian  life  as  the  result  of  the  work 
of  their  own  fellow  students. 

Of  the  membership  of  the  Chinese  movement,  over  one-third  are 
in  Bible  classes,  and  a  more  remarkable  fact  than  that,  five  hundred 
and  sixty  of  the  number,  that  is,  over  a  third,  keep  the  morning 
watch;  that  is,  they  spend  the  first  half  hour  of  every  day  alone 
with  God  in  Bible  study  and  secret  prayer.  I  wish  we  could  say 
that  all  the  members  of  our  seminary  associations  and  other  sections 
of  this  movement  begin  the  day  with  unhurried,  recollected,  pur- 
poseful communion  with  God,  and  with  the  application,  day  by  day, 
of  His  truth  to  the  life.  What  a  different  movement  it  would 
make!  How  it  would  cause  these  colleges  and  seminaries  to  pul- 
sate with  spiritual  energy !  It  is  not  strange  that  we  find  in  China, 
as  a  result  of  such  honoring  of  the  Word  of  God  and  such  ix^lation 
to  Him  in  prayer,  that  the  missionary  spirit  is  developing.  They 
have  now  about  two  hundred  and  sixty  members,  who  arc  what  we 
might  call  volunteers,  who  are  turning  from  opportunities  to  give 
their  lives  to  commercial  pursuits,  where  they  would  receive  two 
or  three  or  more  times  as  great  salary,  and  are  planning  to  devote 
themselves  to  preaching  Christ  to  their  own  people.  This  is  the 
secret  of  the  evangelization  of  the  world  in  the  present  generation. 


420  CHRISTENDOM. 

We  shall  want  leaders  to  go  out  from  our  home  movements,  but  the 
rank  and  file  of  the  workers  must  come  from  the  ranks  of  the  native 
students  themselves. 

JAPAN. 

On  to  Japan,  that  most  brilliant  nation  in  the  world;  that  coun- 
try which  has  achieved  greater  progress  in  one  generation  than  any 
other  country  has  achieved  in  two,  if  not  in  three  generations ;  that 
nation  which  has  been  going  to  school  to  the  whole  world,  and  which 
has  learned  her  lessons  with  such  remarkable  facility.  I  found  one 
hundred  and  fifty  of  those  Japanese  students  in  the  German  univer- 
sities alone.  These  men  have  learned  their  lessons,  and  as  soon  as 
they  learn  them,  they  send  back  their  foreign  teachers.  Japan  has 
fifty  thousand  students.  Of  two  hundred  and  fifty  higher  institu- 
tions of  learning,  about  two  hundred  and  fifteen  are  government 
institutions.  In  these  two  hundred  and  fifteen  government  institu- 
tions, I  found  that  of  three  thousand  three  hundred  professors  and 
teachers,  less  than  one  in  thirty-three  was  a  Christian.  That  was 
three  years  ago.  Less  than  one  in  thirty-three  of  the  teachers  of 
this  progressive  nation  disciples  of  Jesus  Christ !  It  does  not  re- 
quire a  prophet  to  predict  what  that  means  unless  this  proportion 
be  changed,  or  unless  some  new  factor  be  brought  to  bear.  What 
can  be  done?  The  educational  missionaries  cannot  work  in  these 
government  schools  and  colleges.  The  government  prohibits  even 
Christian  teachers  propagating  Christianity  in  connection  with  their 
work.  What  can  be  done?  The  government  does  allow  Christian 
students  to  organize  Young  Men's  Christian  Associations  and  carry 
on  volunteer  work  among  their  own  fellow  students.  God,  there- 
fore, planned  the  idea.  There  were  only  eight  of  these  societies 
three  years  ago.  There  are  now  about  forty,  including  the  great 
keystone  of  their  educational  arch,  the  Imperial  University  itself. 
A  majority  of  the  associations  are  in  the  government  institutions. 

FEDERATION  OF  STUDENTS. 

Five  years  ago  the  leaders  of  the  five  national  student  movements 
then  in  existence  came  together  in  Sweden  and  formed  the  World's 
Student  Christian  Federation.  Since  then  all  these  other  national 
student  movements  which  I  have  named  have  joined  the  Federation, 
80  that  now  it  includes  over  one  thousand  four  hundred  associations 


STUDENTS'    FEDERATION.  421 

or  unions,  and  a  membership  of  sixty-five  thousand  students  and 
professors,  the  largest  student  brotherhood  in  {he  world.  What 
made  it  possible  to  bring  together  this  combination?  The  Spirit 
of  God  suggested  this  basis :  "The  leading  of  the  students  of  the 
world  to  become  disciples  of  Christ,  building  them  up  in  Christ, 
and  sending  them  out  into  the  world  to  work  for  Christ."  It  was 
found  possible  to  sink  denominational,  national,  and  racial  differ- 
ences, and  to  link  together  people  regardless  of  their  jealousies  and 
prejudices  on  this  simple,  yet  secure  platform.  God  has  honored 
this  combination  of  students  in  the  name  of  Christ. 

WHAT  HAS  BEEN  ACCOMPLISHED? 

It  is  more  than  an  inspiring  idea,  although  that  would  be  sufficient 
to  warrant  calling  it  into  being.  It  has  organized  six  national  or 
international  Christian  student  movements.  When  we  think  what 
our  own  movement  has  meant  to  us  in  North  America,  we  form  some 
conception  of  what  it  means  now  that  they  have  similar  movements 
in  all  parts  of  the  world.  It  has  set  these  movements  to  acting  and 
re-acting  upon  each  other,  making  them  acquainted  with  one  an- 
other. As  a  result  of  that  it  has  broadened  the  scope  and  improved 
the  methods  of  every  student  movement  of  the  world.  This  is  what 
we  should  expect.  The  Spirit  of  God  works  in  divers  places  as 
well  as  in  divers  manners.  He  has  not  revealed  to  the  students 
of  any  one  country  the  only  way  in  which  to  accomplish  His  work 
in  the  world.  I  am  coming  to  believe  that  the  students  of  China 
and  of  India  and  of  Japan  have  lessons  to  teach  the  student  move- 
ments of  the  West,  which  will  greatly  enrich  our  lives  and  increase 
our  efficiency  in  the  service  of  building  up  the  Kingdom  of  Christ 
in  the  world.  This  Federation  also  enables  the  strong  movements 
to  help  the  weak.  And  this  is  the  will  of  God.  If  you  could  have 
been  with  me  visiting  the  isolated  colleges  of  China,  Japan  and 
India,  and  could  have  seen  what  an  encouragement  and  inspiration 
it  was  to  these  groups  of  Christian  students  fighting  against  great 
odds  to  be  linked  up  with  these  strong  bodies  of  disciples  of  Clirist 
in  the  West,  you  would  cultivate  this  Federation  bond  with  more 
assiduity  and  faithfulness  than  ever  before.  Moreover,  the  Federa- 
tion enables  the  weak  movements  to  help  the  strong.  There  is  not 
a  student  nor  an  association  in  our  movement  that  would  not  be 
moved  by  the  heroism  and  the  consecration  and  faithfulness  of  these 


422  CHEISTENDOM. 

Btruggling  bands  of  students  out  on  the  battle  line  of  the  Kingdom 
of  God.  The  Federation  has  broadened  the  horizon  and  enriched 
the  sympathies  of  every  intelligent  member  of  the  world-wide  stu- 
dent brotherhood.  It  has  set  before  us  a  grand  and  inspiring  objec- 
tive: Nothing  less  than  the  evangelization  of  the  world  and  the 
complete  establishment  of  Messiah's  reign.  It  has  helped  to  answer 
in  a  marked  way  the  prayer  of  our  Lord  that  they  all  may  be  one. 

As  I  stood  in  the  last  conference  of  the  Federation  at  Versailles 
the  other  day,  when  the  officials  and  leaders  of  the  student  move- 
ments representing  twenty-three  countries  had .  assembled  in  con- 
ference, and  noticed  the  fellowship  between  the  Spanish  and  Ameri- 
can delegates,  witnessed  the  mingling  of  the  German  and  French 
delegates,  and  observed  the  British  and  Dutch  delegates  (under- 
stand, this  was  August,  1900)  uniting  in  fellowship,  and  as  I  re- 
minded myself  that  the  Chinese  and  Japanese  delegates  had  traveled 
for  six  weeks  together  to  that  conference  as  fellow  passengers,  and 
were  discussing  common  plans  for  the  evangelization  of  the  Orient, 
I  said  to  myself  that  this  Federation  is  most  impressively  illustrat- 
ing the  reality  of  the  truth  that  there  is  one  fold  and  one  Shepherd, 
and  is  revealing  to  Christians  the  world  over  their  oneness  in  Christ 
our  Lord. 


SALVATION  ARMY. 


Commander  Booth  Tucker, 

NEW    YORK. 

Hail,  Prophet  of  the  Poor !     Discoverer 

Of  that  sad,  melancholy  No  Man's  Land, 

Where  tears  of  widows,  orphans,  desolate, 

Pour  in  one  huge  Niagara  of  woe. 

And  gather  into  lakes  of  sorrow,  fathomless — 

Immeasurable  waste  of  human  grief  ! 

Hail,  Noble  Heart,  that  dares  to  seek  to  staunch 

The  source  of  heart-ache  by  the  balm  Divine 

Of  Calvary — who,  passing  boldly  by 

All  earthly  nostrums,  steadfastly  declares 

That,  come  what  may,  thy  lot  with  Christ  is  cast — 

That  for  humanity's  vast,  gaping  wounds 

The  wounds  of  Christ  as  solace  sole  exist ! 

Hail,  Leader  of  our  conquering  hosts  below. 

Who,  passing  the  church-cared  professor  by, 

Has  summoned  every  follower  to  thy  side. 

To  dive  to  lowest  depths  of  lost  mankind. 

And  seek  amid  those  water-caverns  hid. 

The  priceless  pearls  for  whom  Christ's  blood  was  shed ! 

Nor  vain  the  quest!     Millions  of  costly  gems 

Thy  hand  hath  rescued  from  those  realms  of  death, 

To  stud  the  jeweled  crown  of  Christ  thy  Lord! 

Amid  the  countless  hosts  who  fight  beneath 

The  Flag  of  Blood  and  Fire  none  love  thee  more. 

Nor  pledge  more  firmly  to  thy  principles, 

Than  we,  thy  soldiers  of  America, 

Who  follow  thee  through  lif^-to  death— and  rise      _ 

To  hail  thee  in  the  Resurrection  Morn ! 

*  *  * 

In  the  fascinating  records  of  the  struggles  and  triumphs  of  the 

champions  of  the  Cross  who  have  fought  and  bled  and  died,  through 

the  ages,  some  of  the  most  thrilling  pages  will  ever  be  those  on  which 

are  inscribed  the  wonderful  history  of  the  rise  and  progress  of  the 

Salvation  Army.  .  •     n   • 

The  histories  of  all  great  religious  organizations  have  m  their 
earlier  part  been  more  or  less  the  histories  of  the  men  from  whose 

423 


'424  CHRISTENDOM. 

consecrated  lives  they  have  sprung.  Thus  the  life  of  George  Fox  is 
the  history  of  the  Quakers  of  the  seventeenth  century ;  John  Wesley's 
that  of  Methodism  in  the  eigliteenth ;  and  the  brilliant  and  tremen- 
dously active  career  of  William  Booth  has  impressed  its  stamp  upon 
every  development  of  the  Salvation  Army,  the  great  religious  cru- 
sade of  the  nineteenth. 

William  Booth  started  early  that  career  of  blood  and  fire  which 
later  was  to  fling  a  world-wide  halo  of  love  and  veneration  around 
his  name.  Although  born  and  reared  within  the  gates  of  the 
Church  of  England — he  was  baptized  in  a  Derbyshire  parish  church 
in  1829 — he  began  at  the  age  of  fifteen  to  attend  the  services  held 
at  a  Wesleyan  chapel.  The  clear  and  simple  preaching  of  the  Gos- 
pel produced  a  profound  impression  upon  him.  He  was  soundly 
converted,  joined  the  church  and  soon  became  one  of  its  most  active 
members. 

His  father,  who  was  an  extremely  able  business  man,  had  died 
some  time  previously,  after  meeting  with  reverses  which  left  his 
widow  with  the  remnants  of  a  broken  fortune,  to  struggle  with  ad- 
verse circumstances.  From  him  William  Booth  inlierited  a  keen 
business  ability  and  a  restless  energy,  while  his  mother,  a  rarely 
spiritual  and  pure  and  tender  woman,  must  have  endowed  him  with 
that  intense  spiritual  enthusiasm  which  has  ever  been  the  predomi- 
nating trait  in  his  character. 

This  enthusiasm  soon  began  to  make  itself  felt.  The  ordinary 
methods  of  church  work  were  not  sufficiently  aggressive  to  satisfy 
the  young  convert's  thirst  for  the  salvation  of  souls.  When  the  long 
day's  work  in  the  store  was  over  he  would,  after  swallowing  a  hasty 
supper,  hurry  as  fast  as  possible  to  the  slumming  purlieus  of  Not- 
tingham, and,  mounted  on  a  chair  or  a  soap-box,  he  would  hold  forth 
to  the  passing  throng.  Large  crowds  were  nightly  brought  under 
the  spell  of  the  boy  preacher's  eloquence,  and  in  the  streets,  or  in 
some  crowded  cottage  meeting,  he  would  follow  up  the  impression 
made,  never  happy  unless  he  had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  some 
poor,  ill-kempt  sinner  kneel  and  pour  out  his  heart  to  God  in  prayer. 

Thus  the  very  foundations  of  the  work  of  the  coming  Salvation 
Army  were  there  unconsciously  laid  by  the  youthful  evangelist.  A 
number  of  young  men  gathered  quickly  around  him  to  help  carry  on 
the  warfare.  His  leadership  was  never  questioned,  even  by  those 
who  were  his  superiors  in  age  and  social  station.  As  later  on  in 
life,  he  went  ahead,  others  followed.     Singing,  he  would  form  his 


GENERAL  \VM.  BOOTH. 


SALVATION    ARMY.  425 

converts  into  a  motley  procession  and  march  them  down  the  streets — 
a  prototype  of  the  Salvation  Army  march  that  was  to  sweep  the 
glohe.  Although  the  older  members  of  the  congregation  eyed  the 
uproar  askance,  yet  he  allowed  nothing  to  dampen  the  ardor  of  his 
or  his  companions'  enthusiasm. 

Already  then  it  was  noticeable  how  a  great,  passionate  love  for  the 
poor  more  and  more  filled  his  heart  and  consumed  him  with  a  flam- 
ing zeal.  The  horrible  conditions  of  the  slums  among  whose  ragged 
denizens  he  labored  burned  its  indelible  seal  upon  every  fibre  of  his 
soul.  He  who  was  to  become  the  author  of  "Darkest  England"  here 
went  through  every  grade  of  his  apprenticeship.  In  the  recking 
atmosphere  of  drink  and  suffering  and  sickness  and  want  was  found 
the  soul  of  him  who  later  on  was  to  be  known  in  every  clime  as 
"The  Apostle  of  the  Poor." 

It  was  at  this  period  that  a  revival  occurred  in  the  Nottingham 
Circuit  under  the  preaching  of  the  Kev.  James  Caughey,  an  Amer- 
ican revivalist.  It  was  the  first  time  that  he  had  seen  the  wonder- 
ful effect  of  a  sustained  direct  appeal  to  the  moral  sense  of  a  semi- 
Christian  community.  The  straightforward  conversational  method 
of  teaching  the  truth  of  the  Gospel,  and  the  common-sense  practice 
of  pushing  people  up  to  the  point  of  decision,  made  an  immense 
impression  upon  his  mind.  It  revealed  to  him  the  truth  that  in  the 
spiritual  as  in  the  material  world  God  works  by  law  and  not  by 
caprice,  and  that  if  harvests  are  not  reaped  it  is  the  husbandry  that 
is  at  fault.  He  tells  us :  "I  saw  as  clearly  as  if  a  revelation  had  been 
made  to  me  from  Heaven,  that  success  in  spiritual  work,  as  in 
natural  operations,  was  to  be  accounted  for  not  in  any  abstract 
theory  of  Divine  sovereignty,  or  favoritism,  or  accident,  but  in  the 
employment  of  such  methods  as  were  dictated  by  common  sense,  the 
Holy  Spirit,  and  the  Word  of  God." 

Twenty  years  later  the  Salvation  Army  sprang  into  c.vistcncc,  but 
its  world-wide  march  of  triumph  is  simply  the  result  of  the  lesson 
then  learned  by  the  lad  of  sixteen.  lie  stands  now  where  he  stood 
then,  and  all  that  was  to  come  was  simply  development  of  the 
great  truths  he  then  grasped  as  they  were  flashed  upon  him  with  the 
force  of  a  Spirit-born  revelation. 

The  genius  and  enterprise  that  flashed  forth  in  those  early  days 
were  quickly  recognized  by  his  church.  At  the  early  age  of  seven- 
teen William  Booth  was  appointed  to  be  a  local  preacher,  and  two 
years  later  his  pastor  urged  him  to  enter  the  ministry.     \h^  health 


426  CHRISTENDOM. 

was  delicate,  and  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  doctor  who  exam- 
ined him  in  order  to  report  upon  his  physical  qualifications,  pro- 
nounced him  utterly  unfit  for  such  a  career,  prophesying  that  it 
would  land  him  in  the  grave  within  twelve  months.  For  this  reason 
he  still  remained  in  the  ranks  four  years,  until  he  finally,  in  Lon- 
don, on  his  twenty-third  birthday,  gave  up  his  promising  business 
career  and  entered  the  ministry  of  the  Methodist  Church. 

We  have  dwelt  so  fully  upon  these  early  years  because  they  sup- 
ply the  only  clue  to  a  full  understanding  of  the  marvelous  history  of 
the  Salvation  Army.  It  explains  the  secret  of  the  remarkable  influ- 
ence its  founder  wields  over  his  officers.  People  who  wonder  at  the 
unquestioning  obedience  shown  him  by  his  followers  never  under- 
stood the  impelling  force  of  a  great  example.  Already  at  twenty  he 
wrote  in  a  private  letter  to  one  of  his  friends :  "Grasp  still  further 
the  standard  !  Unfold  still  wider  the  battle  flag !  Press  still  closer 
on  the  ranks  of  the  enemy,  and  mark  your  pathway  still  more  dis- 
tinctly with  glorious  trophies  of  Emmanuel's  grace  and  with  en- 
during monuments  of  Jesus'  power !  The  trumpet  has  given  the 
signal  for  the  conflict !  Your  General  assures  you  of  success  and  a 
glorious  reward  !  Your  crown  is  already  held  out !  Then  why  de- 
lay ?  Why  doubt  ?  Onward,  onward,  onward !"  This  letter  is 
stamped  with  the  spirit  of  leadership.  The  same  glorious  spirit  has 
spoken  from  every  action  of  his  fifty  years  of  Christian  warfare 
even  as  it  already  then  cast  a  beacon  light  across  the  monumental 
work  he  was  destined  to  upbuild.  It  was  in  this  spirit  he  commenced 
his  labors  in  the  Methodist  churches  as  a  credited  evangelist. 

In  church  after  church  the  revival  flame  burst  forth.  Crowded 
audiences  faced  the  young  preacher,  no  matter  whither  he  might 
turn  his  steps.  Such  was  the  number  of  the  penitents  that  flocked 
to  the  altar  for  prayer  that  it  became  necessary,  as  a  preliminary  to 
each  campaign,  to  construct  a  fence,  which  would  keep  back  the 
crowd  and  enable  the  seekers  to  be  properly  dealt  with  by  experi- 
enced persons.  It  was  in  the  course  of  this  work  he  first  met  the 
remarkable  woman  who  was  to  play  so  important  a  part  in  his  life 
and  to  impress  so  much  of  her  nobility  of  soul  and  holiness  of  char- 
acter upon  the  Salvation  Army. 

Catherine  Mumford  was  bom  January  17,  1829,  in  Ashbourne, 
Derbyshire,  England,  and  grew  up  in  the  almost  Puritanical  seclu- 
sion of  her  home.  Her  mother  was  a  saintly  woman,  and  through 
the  physical  sufferings  of  a  very  delicate  childhood,  her  mother  and 


SALVATION    ARMY.  427 

her  much-loved  books  were  almost  her  sole  companions.  In  this 
pure  atmosphere  her  character  was  formed,  and  when  later  she  at- 
tended the  young  evangehst's  meetings,  it  was  but  natural  that  she 
should  be  drawn  toward  him.  Between  them  sprang  up  an  affection 
which  later  on  found  expression  in  one  of  the  most  beautiful  court- 
ships and  blessed  marriages  ever  known.  The  letters  from  the  early 
days  of  their  attachment  are  of  a  truly  sublime  character. 

The  wedding  was  quietly  and  unostentatiously  celebrated  on  June 
16,  1855,  and  from  that  moment  not  an  onward  step  was  taken  in 
which  Catherine  Booth  was  not  fully  associated  with  her  husband. 
It  was  not,  however,  till  five  years  later,  at  Gateshead,  that  Mrs. 
Booth  commenced  the  public  ministry  which  was  so  remarkably 
blessed  to  thousands,  and  which  was  to  open  wide  the  door  of  oppor- 
tunity for  so  many  women  who  were  encouraged  by  her  example  to 
follow  in  her  footsteps. 

Of  Mrs.  Booth  and  her  remarkable  life  and  labor  volumes  could 
be  given  without  doing  it  justice.  The  title  "The  Army's  Mother," 
under  which  she  is  affectionately  known  the  world  over,  aptly  de- 
scribes her  importance  to  the  organization.  She  stood  by  her  hus- 
band in  the  early  days  of  persecution  and  hatred,  she  encouraged, 
advised,  inspired  and  urged  onward  the  ranks  in  every  storm;  she 
was  the  counsellor  in  every  arising  difficulty,  and  her  sound  common 
sense  and  judgment  were  invaluable  in  selecting  the  wisest  path. 
Further  than  this,  she  unfolded  an  astonishing  activity  both  in  the 
pulpit  and  with  her  pen.  Her  gifts  as  a  public  speaker  were  of  the 
highest  order,  and  from  her  w^ritings  her  fiery  soul  still  speaks  to 
millions.  Well  might  Mr.  Stead  call  her  "A  Maker  of  Modem 
England,"  and,  speaking  of  her,  say:  "Among  all  those  religious 
teachers  who  have  left  the  impress  of  their  thought  and  life  upon 
England  of  to-day,  Mrs.  Booth  is  at  once  the  most  conspicuous,  the 
most  typical,  and  the  most  modern. 

"Catherine  Booth  differed  from  all  the  others  in  almost  every 
element  of  distinction.  To  begin  with,  she  was  a  woman,  and  no 
woman  before  her  exercised  so  direct  an  influence  upon  the  religious 
life  of  her  time.  Her  work  was  not  the  mere  carrv'ing  on  of  an 
existing  organization.  She  and  her  husband  built  up  out  of  recruits 
gathered  in  the  highways  and  by-ways  of  the  land  what  is  to  all  in- 
tents and  purposes  a  vast,  world-wide  church.  When  she  began  to 
preach  the  Salvation  Army  had  not  yet  been  dreamed  of. 

"The  Salvation  Army  is  a  miracle  of  our  time.     It  is  the  latest 


438  CHRISTENDOM. 

revelation  of  the  potency  of  the  invisible  over  the  visible,  the  con- 
crete manifestation  of  the  power  of  the  spirit  over  matter. 

"This  vast  organization,  far  greater  than  anything  achieved  by 
Fox  or  Wesley  in  their  lifetime,  is  instinct  in  every  fibre  with  the 
spirit  breathed  into  it  by  Mrs.  Booth.  Though  dead,  she  yet  speaks 
from  a  thousand  platforms.  But  this  is  merely  one  element  of  her 
influence.  The  action  of  the  Salvation  Army  has  stimulated  the 
social  and  evangelistic  activity  of  all  other  churches.  The  Church 
Army  honestly  avows  its  genesis  without  concealment.  Other  bodies 
which  have  sprung  quite  as  directly  into  being  from  a  desire  to 
emulate  the  success  of  the  Salvationists  are  less  candid ;  but  acts  are 
more  eloquent  than  words.  Even  where  there  is  no  organized  effort 
to  adopt  Salvation  Army  methods,  the  community,  from  bishops  to 
policemen,  have  publicly  acknowledged  the  influence  of  the  Booths. 
Another  unique  distinction  of  the  Salvation  Army  is  that  it  is  the 
only  religious  organization  of  English  birth  which  has  produced  any 
visible  effect  upon  non-English-speaking  peoples. 

"George  Fox  preceded  her  in  the  theoretical  proclamation  of  the 
truth ;  but  despite  some  brilliant  examples  of  Quaker  women  preach- 
ers, it  was  not  until  Mrs.  Booth  invented  the  Hallelujah  lasses  that 
there  was  anything  approaching  to  a  popular  recognition  of  the 
capacity  of  women  to  teach,  to  organize,  and  to  command." 

It  was  with  this  woman  at  his  side  that  William  Booth  approached 
the  great  crisis  of  his  life,  the  turning  point  in  his  career.  The  suc- 
cessful evangelist  was,  in  the  midst  of  his  spirit-crowned  labors, 
yearning  for  that  vast  field,  the  churchless  working  classes,  which 
had  so  stirred  his  youthful  soul,  and  to  which  the  seed  he  scattered 
within  the  church  walls  never  seemed  to  reach.  The  traditions  of 
the  church  rose  like  barriers  on  every  hand  to  make  the  attainment 
of  his  life's  great  object  impossible.  He  was  pining  for  the  street 
corners  of  his  early  career,  for  the  God-forsaken  audiences  of  the 
open  air.  He  made  many  attempts  to  follow  the  call  of  the  voice 
which  constantly  cried  out  in  his  soul,  on  behalf  of  the  suffering 
multitudes,  but  in  vain.  At  last  he  took  the  momentous  step,  and 
started  out  upon  the  deep  alone.  He  says  himself:  "I  couldn't 
rest;  I  wanted  to  get  out  into  the  wide  sea  of  misery  surging  and 
sweltering  around  me.  The  Conference  wouldn't  let  me  do  that 
special  work,  the  only  work  for  which  I  felt  myself  really  fitted ;  and 
so,  believing  I  was  called  to  it  by  God,  I  went  out  and  left  every 
friend  I  had  in  the  world." 


MOTHER    BOOTH." 


SALVATION    ARMY.  429 

An  old  tent  in  a  disused  Quaker  burial  ground  constituted  the 
birthplace  of  the  Salvation  Army.  It  was  amid  the  worse  than 
heathen  pandemonium  of  blasphemy  and  ribaldry  for  which  the  East 
End  of  London  is  so  notorious,  that  the  movement  was  bom  and 
cradled.  After  nine  weeks  of  meetings  the  tent  was  blown  down, 
and  then  the  meetings  were  carried  on,  first  in  a  low  dancing  saloon, 
and  then  in  an  old  wool  warehouse,  and  later  on  in  music  halls  and 
theatres.  But  the  opon-air  and  indoor  meetings  were  frequently 
upset  by  the  rough  audiences. 

In  fact,  it  was  through  tempestuous  waters  the  frail  Army  bark 
at  first  had  to  battle  its  way.  The  persecutions  with  which  it  was 
met  remind  one  of  the  early  experiences  of  the  Apostles.  Through- 
cut  its  later  history  instances  of  the  most  fearful  and  violent  oppo- 
sition abound.  Every  country  it  has  invaded  has  furnished  its 
thrilling  chapters  to  this  history  of  blood  and  martyrdom.  But  per- 
secution never  made  either  the  General  or  his  enthusiastic  followers 
slacken  their  pace.  It  rather  fanned  the  flame,  which  now  began 
burning  brightly  in  the  hearts  of  the  thousands  that  were  reached. 
Drunkards,  thieves  and  gamblers  were  won  by  the  score,  and  William 
Booth  provided  plenty  of  opportunities  for  their  new-kindled  ardor. 
Passions,  abilities,  energies  hitherto  desecrated  in  the  service  of  evil 
were  enlisted  in  the  warfare,  and  the  lines  of  attack  were  constantly 
extended. 

Thus  the  Salvation  Army  was  not  made,  in  the  sense  that  it  was 
originated  by  its  founder,  for  the  purpose  it  later  on  has  served  so 
wondrously.  It  simply  grew,  like  a  healthy  plant,  in  the  fertile  soil 
of  a  great  and  crying  need.  Mr.  Booth  had  at  that  day  little  idea 
of  the  momentous  nature  of  the  decision  which  formed  the  turning 
point  of  his  life.  His  idea  was  merely  to  make  converts  for  the 
churches.  But  he  was  reluctantly  driven  to  the  conviction  that  the 
converts  were  not  welcomed  by  the  churches,  and  that  if  they  were 
not  taken  care  of  by  him  they  would  not  be  taken  care  of  by  any  one 
else.  So,  gradually  it  dawned  upon  him  that  he  would  have  to 
build  up  a  whole  religious  society  on  permanent  lines,  the  funda- 
mental feature  of  which  was  the  doctrine  that  no  one  can  keep  saved 
who  does  not  try  to  save  other  people.  Thus  it  was  that  the  Salva- 
tion Army  in  fact,  but  not  in  name,  was  born.  It  was  not  invented ; 
like  Topsy,  it  "groped." 

At  first  the  movement  was  simply  called  "The  Christian  Mission." 
The  decisive  change  which  stamped  the  character  of  the  organization 


430  CHRISTENDOM. 

occurred  in  1878,  when  its  present  name  was  decided  upon.  It  was 
chosen  almost  as  if  by  chance,  and  Mr.  Eailton  describes  the  historic 
occurrence  in  this  fashion :  "We  were  drawing  up  a  brief  descrip- 
tion of  the  Mission,  and,  wishing  to  express  what  it  was  in  one 
phrase,  I  wrote,  'Tlie  Christian  Mission  is  a  volunteer  army  of  con- 
verted working  people.'  'No,'  said  Mr.  Booth,  'we  are  not  volun- 
teers, for  we  feel  we  must  do  what  we  do,  and  we  are  always  on  duty.' 
He  crossed  out  the  words  and  wrote  'Salvation.'  The  phrase  imme- 
diately struck  us  all,  and  we  very  soon  found  it  would  be  far  more 
effective  than  the  old  name." 

This  was  in  1878.  Even  before  that  date,  however,  there  had 
been  indications  of  development  in  a  quasi-military  direction.  The 
evangelists  of  the  Mission  were  called  Captain,  or  Cap'n,  by  those 
who  followed  their  lead,  for  with  the  common  people  Captain  means 
leader.  It  is  the  more  polite  form  of  "Boss."  The  converts  might 
have  chosen  the  latter  term.  Had  they  done  so,  we  might  have  had 
a  great  religious  caucus  with  its  bosses,  instead  of  an  Army  with  ita 
officers.  Gradually  the  other  terms  and  designations  incidental  to  a 
military  organization  were  added.  The  rules  and  regulations  of  the 
British  army  served  Greneral  Booth  as  a  model.  Again  we  quote 
Mr.  Railton: 

"When  the  Army  name  was  definitely  adopted,  all  this  was  made 
much  plainer  to  the  minds  of  all  the  people.  What  was  in- 
consistent with  the  soldierhood  for  Christ  was  as  rapidly  aa 
possible  got  rid  of,  and  all  that  was  useful  in  the  teachings  of  earth's 
armies  was  carefully  learned.  Part  No.  1  of  Orders  and  Regulations 
for  the  Salvation  Arm.y  was  published  in  1878,  after  long  and  care- 
ful study  of  the  manuals  of  the  British  army." 

In  the  question  of  uniform  Mrs.  Booth  took  a  special  interest. 
Herself  careful  to  an  extreme  to  dress  with  neatness  and  modesty, 
some  of  her  most  powerful  anathemas  had  been  directed  from  time 
to  time  against  the  fashions  of  the  day. 

Mrs.  Booth  set  herself  to  work  to  devise  for  the  women  something 
which  would  be  at  once  plain,  distinctive  and  attractive.  Shutting 
herself  up  in  a  room  with  her  daughter  and  surrounded  by  a  heap 
of  bonnets  of  various  sorts  and  sizes,  she  endeavored  to  discover  what 
would  be  adapted  to  both.  Some  suited  one,  some  suited  the  other, 
but  the  now  famous  "Plallclujah  bonnet"  was  at  length  hit  upon 
and  pronounced  equally  suitable  to  all.  Others  who  were  consulted 
on  the  subject  confirmed  this  opinion,  and  thus  was  settled  the  char- 


SALVATION    ARMY.  431 

acter  of  "the  helmet  of  salvation"  which  was  to  be  worn  by  the 
women  warriors  of  the  Salvation  Array. 

And  then  the  wonderful  onward  march  of  the  Salvation  Armj 
properly  began.  It  soon  spread  over  the  borders  of  the  United 
Kingdom,  generally  as  the  resiilt  of  an  urgent  appeal  from  some 
emigrated  Salvation  soldier,  who  besieged  the  General  with  requests 
to  send  officers  to  commence  the  warfare  in  his  domicile.  Thus 
America  was  invaded  in  1882,  when  Commissioner  Railton  and  a 
party  of  officers  were  sent  to  open  operations.  France,  Switzerland, 
Australia,  New  Zealand,  Sweden,  Holland,  Africa  and  India  fol- 
lowed rapidly.  The  onward  swinging  files  have  marched  around  the 
globe  with  the  songs  of  a  blood-bought  liberty.  To-day  the  cosmo- 
politan operations  of  the  Salvation  Army  are  carried  on  by  15,704 
officers  in  47  countries  and  colonies,  and  their  literature  is  printed 
in  1,000,000  copies  weekly  in  31  languages. 


SOCIAL  SETTLEMENTS/ 


Robert  A.  Woods, 


[The  60cial  settlement  is  an  attempt  to  express  the  meaning  of  life  in 
terms  of  life  itself,  in  forms  of  activity.  There  is  no  doubt  that  the  deed 
often  reveals  when  the  idea  does  not,  just  as  art  makes  us  understand  and 
feel  what  might  be  incomprehensible  and  inexpressible  in  the  form  of  an 
argument.  A  settlement  brings  to  its  aid  all  possible  methods  to  reveal  and 
make  common  its  conceptions  of  life.  All  those  arts  and  devices  which 
express  kindly  relations  from  man  to  man,  from  charitable  effort  to  the  moat 
specialized  social  intercourse,  are  tried.  There  are  so-called  art  exhibits, 
concerts,  dramatic  representations,  every  possible  device  to  make  operative  on 
the  life  around  it  the  conception  of  life  which  the  settlement  group  holds.  The 
demonstration  is  made,  not  by  reason,  but  by  life  itself. — Jane  Addams,  in 
'Hom.  Rev.,"  August,  1901,  page  177. — Ed.] 

^  *  H: 

A  GROUP  of  young  university  men  in  Holland,  some  of  whom  had 
visited  Toynbee  Hall  when  they  were  in  London,  established  a  few 
years  ago  a  society  for  "Toynbee  work"  in  their  own  country.  Last 
summer  in  Paris  a  distinguished  French  sociologist  was  found  who 
ehowed  no  signs  of  recognition  at  the  mention  of  social  settlements 
in  American  cities;  but  when,  for  the  sake  of  definiteness,  Hull 
House  was  referred  to,  the  savant  responded  eagerly  that  of  course 
"he  had  often  heard  of  "the  Hull  Houses."  These  things  suggest 
the  shifting  of  interest  from  the  idea  and  motive  of  a  colony  of 
young  apostles  of  better  things  going  to  live  amid  the  city's  greatest 
need,  to  specific  enterprises  which  have  been  able  to  show  a  degree 
of  downright  achievement. 

So  strong  has  the  tendency  become  among  settlement  residents 
themselves  to  fix  their  gaze  on  results  and  to  disallow  tributes  to 
their  devotion  that  Canon  Barnett,  in  the  last  report  of  Toynbee 
Hall,  urges  that  "there  is  a  distinct  loss  to  a  community  when  its 
members  do  not  own  np  to  their  best  qualities."  It  is  this  ten- 
dency in  large  part  which  led  Dr.  Fairbairn,  in  an  address  in  the 
interest  of  Mansfield  House,  to  say  that  much  of  the  high  enthu- 
siasm for  social  reform  which  existed  some  years  ago  at  Oxford  ha^ 

•Appeared  in  "The  Congregationalist,"  February  2,  1901. 

432 


ARNuLD    loVMiKE. 


pjLLIJ^ 


^m 


UNIVERSITY  SRTTLRMEXT.    NEW   YORK. 


SOCIAL    SETTLEMENTS.  435 

passed  away.  The  first  ardent  expression  of  motives  has  certainly 
passed  away,  because  its  immediate  end  has  been  gained,  and  also 
because  the  extreme  pressure  of  distress  is  by  no  means  so  great. 
But  Canon  Barnett,  and  all  who  have  watched  the  growth  of  settle- 
ments in  England  and  America,  would  insist  that  there  is  a  stronger 
and  sounder  devotion  to  the  settlement  cause  than  at  any  time  dur- 
ing the  sixteen  years  since  Toynhee  Hall  was  established. 

Next  after  the  peculiar  quality  of  feeling  which  identifies  all  set- 
tlement activity  on  both  sides  of  the  water,  the  thing  that  most  im- 
presses one  who  goes  on  journeys  of  comparison  is  the  marked  in- 
dividual character  of  each  of  the  settlements.  This  is  partly  on 
account  of  the  variety  of  environment  amid  which  the  different 
houses  are  located ;  and  it  is  a  cardinal  point  in  settlement  doctrine 
that  the  resident  must  bo  to  his  neighborhood  as  Frocbel  to  the  child 
whom  he  besought  to  teach  him.  But  quite  as  strong  an  influence 
toward  uniqueness  among  the  different  settlements  is  the  fresh  and 
vital  personality  which  is  usually  characteristic  of  settlement  corps, 
set  free  in  a  field  affording  great  variety  and  novelty  of  experience, 
where  there  are  almost  no  traditions  and  every  day  is  a  new  day. 

Settlements  have  grown  along  two  main  lines — institutional  de- 
velopment and  personal  influence.  A  glance  at  the  needs  of  any  poor 
and  crowded  city  district  always  makes  it  clear  that  there  must  be 
organized  facilities  for  recreation  and  enlightenment  to  make  good, 
so  far  as  possible,  the  physical  and  moral  evils  of  tenement-house 
existence.  Where  such  facilities  could  not  be  secured  through  pro- 
gressive municipal  action  or  by  inducing  public-spirited  citizens  to 
take  special  voluntary  action,  settlement  houses  have  themselves  be- 
come the  centres  of  a  group  of  such  organized  agencies  of  charity,  of 
education,  of  "philanthropy  and  five  per  cent."  as  the  needs  of  the 
neighborhood  urgently  indicated. 

It  is  more  distinctive  of  the  settlement,  however,  to  rely  upon 
leavening  influence  in  the  local  community  as  it  stands,  rather  than 
upon  the  creation  of  new  organizations  and  institutions.  The  en- 
trance of  the  settlement  worker  upon  equal  terms  with  his  neighbors 
into  the  ordinary  channels  of  local  affairs,  political,  industrial,  rc^ 
creative,  educational,  religious ;  his  abiding  and  ever-growing  inter- 
est in  what  is  sociallv  indigenous  to  the  soil ;  his  becoming  not  so 
much  the  philanthropist  and  reformer  as  the  good  neighbor  and  good 
citizen— this  constitutes  at  once  the  originality  and  the  invincible 
power  of  the  settlement  scheme. 


434  CHRISTENDOM. 

The  fact  that  Toynbee  Hall  was  the  first  settlement  has  been 
enough  to  make  it  serve  as  the  t^^pical  one  in  the  public  mind,  but 
it  can  also  hold  the  prioritv'  in  the  number  and  variety  of  university 
men  whom  it  has  attracted  to  its  service  and  in  the  high  standard  of 
good  taste  and  enlightened  devotion  which  it  has  set  for  itself  and 
imparted  directly  or  indirectly  in  greater  or  less  degree  to  all  other 
settlements.  It  has  been  the  contribution  of  Canon  Bamett  to  make 
the  service  of  the  poor  interesting  and  romantic.  He  brought  to  pass 
the  idea  of  having  universitv  men  living  as  neighbors  to  working 
people.  He  originated  or  successfully  developed  those  unique  ef- 
forts in  the  way  of  imparting  the  finest  results  of  culture  to  the 
common  people  which  are  especially  associated  with  settlement  work 
wherever  it  is  found.  In  these  ways  To}Tibee  Hall,  as  pioneer,  has 
probably  contributed  to  the  world  more  than  the  total  value  of  the 
work  of  all  other  settlements  combined. 

So  far  as  its  local  programme  is  concerned,  Toynbee  Hall  has  not 
neglected  the  strenuous  side,  as  the  "Whitechapel  patrol  of  some  years 
ago  clearly  indicated.  The  settlement  has  been  represented  now  for 
a  period  of  years  by  one  delegate  to  the  London  County  Council  and 
two  to  the  London  School  Board.  The  Whitechapel  Free  Library 
resulted  from  a  political  canvass  conducted  by  the  residents.  The 
Whitechapel  Free  Art  Exhibition,  which  is  one  of  the  most  charac- 
teristic Toynbee  enterprises,  has  crv'stallized  into  the  beautiful 
Whitechapel  Art  Museum.  One  of  the  most  successful  adjuncts  to 
the  large  university  extension  work  done  at  Toynbee  Hall  is  the 
Toynbee  Travelers'  Club,  under  whose  auspices  one  or  two  parties 
are  taken  every  year  at  very  low  rates  under  enlightened  leadership 
over  one  or  another  of  the  most  interesting  routes  of  continental 
travel.  Beside  the  elevation  of  tone  brought  to  the  neighborhood 
by  the  presence  of  Toynbee  Hall,  its  residents  and  visitors  and  two 
groups  of  young  clerks  living  in  buildings  especially  designed  for 
their  use,  a  considerable  improvement  has  been  brought  about  by 
the  erection  of  several  blocks  of  model  tenement  houses. 

There  are  a  number  of  excellent  reasons  for  the  unsectarian  policy 
of  Toynbee  Hall.  The  settlement  was  a  development  out  of  church 
work,  and  the  church  next  door  adequately  meets  the  needs  of  its 
constituency.  Whitechapel  includes  the  London  Ghetto,  and  it 
would  have  been  very  difficult  to  exert  any  sort  of  influence  among 
the  thousands  of  poor  and  ignorant  Jewish  refugees  if  the  settlement 
itself  had  aroused  their  religious  prejudices.    Moreover,  it  has  been 


SOCIAL    SETTLEMENTS.  435 

possible  for  Toynbee  Hall  to  attract  to  its  service  men  of  all  sorts, 
including  many  who  would  have  hesitated  long  before  joining  the 
active  staff  of  a  church  settlement. 

This  much  being  said,  however,  it  is  a  source  of  great  satisfaction 
that  at  the  Oxford  House,  which  is  under  High  Church  influences, 
and  at  Mansfield  House,  which  had  its  origin  in  the  Congregational 
theological  training  college  at  Oxford,  definite  religious  effort  takes 
its  normal  place  in  the  settlement  scheme.  In  the  neighborhoods 
cared  for  by  these  two  settlements,  the  conditions  are  very  different 
from  those  in  Whitechapel.  The  work  of  the  churches  greatly 
needed  reinforcement,  and  there  was  no  large  element  of  the  popula- 
tion to  be  thrown  into  an  attitude  of  unyielding  hostility  by  mis- 
sionary activity.  Both  settlements  have  drawn  for  their  workers 
almost  exclusively  upon  the  loyalty  of  members  of  a  single  com- 
munion, so  that  there  has  been  no  danger  of  schism  in  the  settlement 
body  itself. 

There  has  been  an  interesting  contrast  between  these  two  settle- 
ments in  their  religious  work.  The  Oxford  House  has  undertaken 
to  combat  the  old  secularism  of  the  working  classes  in  England, 
which  was  acquired  from  Charles  Bradlaugh  with  his  gospel  of  indi- 
vidualism and  atheism.  During  the  summer  open-air  meetings  have 
been  conducted  in  the  parks,  and  during  the  winter  there  have  been 
large  Sunday  evening  gatherings  in  University  Hall,  located  near  the 
Oxford  House  in  Bethnal  Green.  At  these  meetings  the  talk  has 
been  mainly  along  the  somewhat  conventional  line  of  apologetics  in 
rebuttal  of  all  that  secularist  orators  might  say  about  difficulties  in 
the  Bible  narrative.  There  cannot  be  any  question  that  this  sort 
of  work  has  brought  good  results,  but  these  results  have  come  rather 
from  the  cheery,  courageous  faith  of  the  Oxford  House  men  than 
from  their  argumentative  strategy. 

At  Mansfield  House  the  method  has  been  much  wiser  and  vastly 
more  suggestive.  The  Mansfield  House  Sunday  aftomoon-mceting 
is,  for  this  day  of  the  world,  the  most  realistic  and  stimulating  popu- 
lar religious  service  which  I  have  ever  attended.  Here,  instead  of 
combating,  and  so  galvanizing  into  life,  a  moribund  secularism,  the 
new  and  rising  social  hopes  of  the  people  are  caught  up  and  lifted 
to  their  true  interpretation  by  enforcing  some  of  the  neglected  but 
vital  human  motives  of  the  Gospel. 

At  both  of  these  settlements  a  largn  and  increasing  amount  of 
work  is  done  in  the  way  of  the  organization  of  charity,  the  direction 


436  CHRISTENDOM. 

of  school-board  education,  the  management  of  clubs  for  men  and 
boys.  At  Mansfield  House  an  active  interest  is  taken  in  the  labor 
movement  and  in  politics.  Kcir  Hardy,  the  most  high-minded,  but 
also  the  most  uncompromising,  of  the  English  labor  leaders,  was  sent 
to  Parliament  some  years  ago  through  the  efforts  of  the  Mansfield 
House  men.  The  Oxford  House,  a  year  or  two  ago,  lost  the  head 
who  brought  the  settlement  to  its  greatest  success,  Rev.  A.  F.  Win- 
nington  Ingram,  who  is  now  bishop  suffragan  of  Stepney,  having 
direction  of  the  entire  work  of  the  Established  Church  in  East  Lon- 
don. Mansfield  House  continues  under  the  direction  of  Mr.  Percy 
Alden,  who  seems  to  do  two  men's  work  with  considerably  less  than 
one  man's  allotment  of  physical  strength. 

Two  of  the  most  interesting  recent  developments  of  settlement 
enterprise  in  London  have  been  in  connection  with  the  Passmore 
Edwards  Settlement  in  the  Tottenham  Court  Road  district,  not  far 
from  the  British  Museum,  and  the  Robert  Browning  Settlement  in 
South  London,  within  ten  or  fifteen  minutes'  walk  of  Spurgeon's 
Tabernacle.  Passmore  Edwards  House  is  named  after  a  well-known 
London  philanthropist,  who  is  somewhat  unduly  fond  of  ticketing 
his  benefactions.  The  settlement  is,  however,  an  excellently  con- 
ducted one,  the  leaders  being  men  who  have  had  long  experience  at 
Toynbee  Hall.  The  undertaking  looks  for  its  chief  inspiration  to 
Mrs.  Humphry  Ward,  who  was  the  founder  of  it  and  is  particularly 
interested  in  the  part  of  its  work  which  has  to  do  with  popularizing 
the  results  of  the  advanced  criticism  of  the  Bible  as  indicated  in 
"David  Grieve."  The  Robert  Browning  Settlement  has  its  headquar- 
ters in  the  old  Congregational  chapel  where  Browning  was  baptized 
and  attended  service  during  his  boyhood.  The  warden  of  the  settle- 
ment is  Rev.  F.  Herbert  Stead,  a  brother  of  Mr.  W.  T.  Stead,  who 
throws  into  its  work  the  characteristic  progressive  enthusiasm  of  his 
family.  Mr.  Stead's  plan  is  to  have  a  colony  of  homes  scattered 
through  the  neighborhood,  and  in  this  he  is  carrying  settlement  logic 
to  a  sound  conclusion.  The  church,  of  course,  continues  in  the  Con- 
gregational fellowship,  but  the  staff  of  workers  includes  representa- 
tives of  a  variety  of  religious  connections.  The  settlement  has  four 
representatives  on  the  new  borough  council  for  that  part  of  the 
metropolis,  and  there  are  interesting  building  projects  in  hand. 

The  First  American  Settlement  was  established  by  Dr.  Stan- 
ton Coit  in  New  York  in  1887.  Between  that  time  and  this,  settle- 
ments have  been  established  in  all  our  large  cities  from  the  Atlantic 


SOCIAL    SETTLEMENTS.  437 

to  the  Pacific.  The  term  is  used  with  such  laxity  that  it  is  dimcult 
to  tell  accurately  how  many  genuine  enterprit^^s  of  this  sort  there  are 
in  the  country,  but  it  is  safe  to  say  that  there  arc  about  100,  one- 
fourth  of  them  being  already  sufficiently  well  established  to  give 
promise  of  permanent  usefulness. 

Dr.  Coit  called  his  undertaking  a  Neighborhood  Guild,  and 
though,  as  such,  it  came  to  no  great  success,  the  conception  of  the 
settlement  set  forth  in  his  book,  "Neighborhood  Guilds,"  and  since 
worked  out  to  a  degree  by  him  at  Leighton  Hall  in  Ijondon,  is  to  my 
mind  the  most  satisfactory  that  has  ever  been  set  forth.  After  Dr. 
Coit's  removal  to  London,  the  Neighborhood  Guild  was  gathered  up 
in  the  University  Settlement,  of  which  Mr.  James  B.  Reynolds  has 
been  from  the  first  the  head  worker.  It  now  has  on  Eldridgc  street, 
a  little  east  of  the  Bowery,  the  finest  and  best  equipped  building  yet 
erected  for  settlement  purposes.  The  settlement  has  a  growing 
force  of  residents,  and  its  work  is  constantly  exceeding  the  capacity 
of  the  house  and  the  strength  of  the  staff.  An  important  use  of  the 
large  hall  is  that  which  is  made  of  it  by  the  Central  Federated 
Union,  the  official  body  of  delegates  from  the  trade  unions  of  New 
York,  which  formerly  held  its  meetings  amid  very  demoralizing 
surroundings.  Mr.  Reynolds  has  taken  a  leading  part  in  the  cam- 
paigns of  the  Citizens'  Union,  and  is  serving  as  a  member  of  the 
Tenement  House  Commission  appointed  last  summer  by  Governor 
Roosevelt. 

Two  years  after  the  opening  of  the  Neighborhood  Guild,  two  set- 
tlements were  established — so  nearly  at  the  same  time  that  the  mat- 
ter of  priority  is  an  amiably  mooted  question — which  have  ever  since 
stood  as  striking  monuments  to  the  public  spirit,  executive  capacity 
and  sound  sense  of  the  younger  generation  of  American  women — the 
College  Settlement  in  New  York,  and  Hull  House  in  Chicago.  The 
College  Settlement  in  Rivington  street  has  suffered  "somewhat 
through  frequent  changes  in  its  leadership,  but  this  may  perhaps 
only  have  served  to  keep  up  the  loyalty  which  college  women  have 
felt  for  it.  Through  this  loyalt\ — in  addition  to  the  cstablislim(>nt 
of  two  other  women's  college  settlements,  one  in  Philadelphia,  the 
other  (Denison  House)  in  Boston — it  has  come  about  that  a  large 
proportion  of  collegiate  alumnre  are  in  spirit  settlement  wom<>n,  and 
carr\-  this  motive  into  their  home  life  and  into  their  work.  For  th*- 
inculcation  of  this  spirit  the  most  influential  personal  force  has  been 
that  exerted  by  Miss  Vida  Scudder,  who  has  resided  from  time  Ut 


438  CHRISTENDOM. 

time  at  each  of  these  settlements,  and  has  constantly  been  setting 
forth  their  motive  with  deep  intensity  and  insight. 

These  three  college  settlements  have  each  a  force  of  from  eight  to 
twelve  residents,  a  nucleus  of  the  group  remaining  from  year  to  year 
and  gaining  a  deep  influence  in  the  home  life  and  in  the  social  af- 
fairs of  the  young  people  in  their  neighborhood.  In  all  three  cases 
the  influence  of  the  settlement  is  of  a  simple  and  personal  nature, 
and  the  quiet,  permeating  influence  of  their  work  is  certainly  not 
the  less  valuable  for  being  the  less  obvious  and  tangible. 

Hull  House  stands  easily  first,  both  for  achievement  and  signifi- 
cance, among  American  settlements.  It  is  like  Toynbee  Hall  in  the 
originality  and  distinction  which  has  characterized  every  part  of  its 
work,  and  in  solid  and  abiding  achievement,  while  there  is  deter- 
mination and  daring  in  its  work  such  as  is  rather  more  characteristic 
of  some  of  the  other  London  settlements  than  of  Toynbee  Hall. 

In  its  more  obvious  aspects  Hull  House  represents  a  massing  to- 
gether of  practically  the  whole  variety  of  such  appliances  of  charity, 
philanthropy  and  popular  education  as  are  demanded  by  the  needs  of 
a  large  and  otherwise  neglected  immigrant  neighborhood.  The  set- 
tlement has  been  compelled  to  build  up  the  whole  of  this  fabric,  with 
the  exception  of  a  branch  station  of  the  public  library  and  a  small 
bathhouse,  both  of  which  are  supported  by  the  city.  Among  the 
specially  interesting  developments  are  a  children's  building,  a  co- 
operative home  for  working  women,  and  a  restaurant  occupying 
beautiful  and  spacious  quarters,  with  a  theatre  on  the  floor  above. 
Manual  training  and  handicraft  are  emphasized  more  and  more, 
and  it  is  proposed  to  have  at  the  settlement  a  museum  illustrating 
industrial  processes. 

The  deeply  impressive  thing  about  Hull  House,  however,  is  that 
the  finest  quality  of  settlement  spirit  runs  through  all  this  compli- 
cated activity,  holding  it  in  solution,  and  leaving  the  remembrance, 
not  of  an  institution,  but  of  personality,  in  the  mind  of  even  the 
casual  visitor.  Hull  House  has  come  to  exercise  a  profound  influ- 
ence upon  the  whole  life  of  Chicago.  As  a  rallying  centre  for  all 
that  in  any  way  affects  the  uplifting  and  refinement  of  the  great 
mass  of  the  people  of  the  city,  it  has  a  special  pre-eminence,  and  no 
etranger  who  cares  at  all  about  the  higher  life  of  the  Western  me- 
tropolis neglects  to  see  Hull  House. 

It  is  perhaps  the  fullest  way  to  sum  up  what  Miss  Addams  has 
accomplished  to  say  that  she  was  able  at  the  beginning  to  draw  into 


SOCIAL    SETTLEMENTS.  439 

the  service  of  Hull  House  a  remarkable  group  of  young  women,  sev- 
eral of  whom  still  remain  as  the  nucleus  of  what  is  without  doubt 
the  most  resourceful  settlement  force  to  be  found  in  either  country. 

Following  soon  after  these  first  settlements  came  the  South  End 
House — originally  the  Andover  House,  and  founded  by  President 
William  J.  Tucker,  about  whose  work  readers  of  "The  Congregation- 
alist"  are  perhaps  sufficiently  familiar;  Whittier  House  in  Jersey 
City,  under  the  leadership  of  Miss  Cornelia  Bradford ;  Chicago  Com- 
mons, the  creation  of  Professor  Graham  Taylor;  the  Union  Semin- 
ary Settlement  in  New  York,  which  has  had  an  encouraging  growth ; 
and  the  Nurses'  Settlement,  also  in  New  York,  which  is  under  the 
direction  of  Miss  Lillian  Wald,  has  a  peculiar  quality  of  genuineness 
and  inspiration  about  its  work. 

No  settlement  work  in  the  country  deserves  more  sincere  respect 
than  that  which  Professor  Taylor,  at  great  cost  to  himself  in  every 
way,  is  carrying  on  in  Chicago.  His  district  is  to  a  large  extent 
Protestant,  and  lends  itself  to  such  definite  religious  efforts  as  he  is 
successfully  carrying  on.  In  these  days,  when  it  is  the  most  anxious 
concern  of  the  Protestant  churches  that  they  do  not  win  the  alle- 
giance of  nominally  Protestant  workingmen,  it  is  a  striking  fact 
that  a  prominent  teacher  in  the  church  should  have  sufficient  politi- 
cal influence  in  his  ward  to  turn  the  scales  in  favor  of  honest  candi- 
dates, and  should  be  nominated  by  the  army  of  organized  labor  in 
Chicago  as  an  arbiter  in  case  of  strike.  Professor  Taylor  is  now 
struggling  with  the  problem  of  the  adequate  housing  of  Chicago 
Commons.  Part  of  the  new  building,  including  rooms  devoted 
to  the  services  of  a  Congregational  Church,  is  now  complete,  but 
$25,000  is  needed  for  the  remainder  of  the  building.  Consider- 
ing all  the  facts,  subscriptions  for  this  purpose  should  not  be  limited 
to  Chicago  and  its  suburbs,  but  should  come  from  different  parts  of 
the  country,  as  recognition  of  Professor  Taylor's  great  service  to  the 
whole  denomination. 

New  York  and  Chicago  both  have  a  number  of  promising  settle- 
ment undertakings  beside  those  mentioned.  Baltimore,  Cleveland, 
Buffalo,  Pittsburg,  Louisville,  Omaha,  San  Francisco  and  other 
cities  all  report  progress  with  settlements  that  have  developed  chiefly 
within  the  past  three  or  four  years.  Kingsley  House  in  Pittsburg 
was  established  by  Dean  Hodges  shortly  before  he  loft  his  parish  in 
that  city  for  the  Episcopal  Theological  School  in  Cambridge.  This 
settlement  has  just  been  presented  with  a  fine  old  mansion,  admir- 


440  CHRISTENDOM. 

ably  situated  and  having  three-quarters  of  an  acre  of  ground  around 
it.  The  Goodrich  Settlement  in  Cleveland  has  a  beautiful  building, 
the  gift  of  Mrs.  Samuel  Mather,  and  is  a  growing  centre  of  influence 
in  that  city.  Hiram  House,  also  in  Cleveland,  is  the  result  of  a 
peculiar  degree  of  devotion  and  purpose  on  the  part  of  its  head 
worker,  who  in  a  few  years  has  built  up  an  important  enterprise.  In 
Buffalo  two  churches  have  established  settlements  as  centres  for  their 
work  of  social  improvement  in  the  districts  assigned  them  under 
the  successful  "church  district"  plan. 

It  is  the  opinion  of  most  sympathetic  observers,  as  well  as  of  set- 
tlement workers  themselves,  that,  large  as  the  total  value  of  the  work 
of  all  these  settlements  is  in  reviving  the  better  life  of  neglected  city 
neighborhoods,  their  still  greater  contribution  is  in  the  reflex  influ- 
ence which  they  exert  upon  the  educated  and  prosperous  classes  in 
the  community.  The  more  sensitive  social  conscience,  the  removal 
of  social  barriers,  the  enlarged  idea  of  life  as  a  social  service,  the 
tendency  toward  a  more  thorough  spirit  of  democracy  as  a  vital  ele- 
ment in  Christian  culture — these  in  many  people  were  suggested, 
and  in  all  have  been  re-enforced  by  the  object  lesson  of  the  settle- 
ments. 

It  will  in  all  probability  be  found,  also,  that  the  settlements  have 
made  a  definite  contribution  toward  practical  Christian  unity,  by 
bringing  together  Christians  of  every  name  into  enthusiastic  joint 
action  toward  the  bringing  in  of  a  more  Christian  city.  In  most 
cases,  especially  in  this  country,  the  settlement,  if  it  became  a  mis- 
sion, would  at  once  alienate  the  majority  of  its  neighbors,  and  thus 
defeat  its  specific  end ;  but  in  every  case  settlement  workers  are  en- 
couraged to  co-operate  with  local  church  work.  The  American  set- 
tlement represents  in  most  cases  a  friendly  overture  from  Protestant 
Christians  to  Catholic  Christians  or  to  a  Jewish  population,  which 
in  many  cases  stands  deeply  in  need  of  Christian  helpfulness  free 
from  impossible  conditions.  Every  consideration  of  national  and 
social  welfare  demands  that  unity  of  feeling  should  be  created  be- 
tween these  separated  and  even  hostile  classes.  The  settlements  are 
beyond  all  peradventure  making  headway  with  this  task. 

One  of  the  incidental,  yet  highly  important,  outcomes  of  the 
■growth  of  the  settlement  "movement"  is  the  fact  that  at  these  cen- 
tres men  and  women  work  together  in  a  particularly  normal  way, 
■with  fairness  and  freedom,  on  the  Christian  basis  of  capacity  for 
service  as  the  basis  for  precedence,  without  regard  to  sex.    The  secret 


FRANCIS   E,    CLARK,    D.D. 


SOCIAL    SETTLEMENTS.  441 

of  this  is  that  the  settlement  is,  in  the  first  instance,  simply  an  ex- 
tension of  the  home  in  its  finest  conception,  and  offers  a  field,  there- 
fore, in  which  the  trained  and  enlightened  woman  has  an  authority 
which  no  one  would  think  of  questioning.  In  all  of  the  settlementa 
men  and  women  work  together.  Some  have  only  men,  or  only 
women,  actually  in  residence.  At  others  there  is  a  group  of  men 
residents  and  a  group  of  women  residents,  living  in  different  houses. 
At  others  still,  especially  where  the  tradition  of  co-education  ob- 
tains, men  and  women  residents  live  under  the  same  roof. 

Within  the  past  few  weeks  tM'o  interesting  documents  have  ap- 
peared which  give  impressive  exhibits  of  the  spread  and  substantial 
growth  of  settlement  work.  A  fourth  edition  of  the  Bibliography 
of  College,  Social,  University  and  Church  Settlements  has  been  pre- 
pared by  Mrs.  Caroline  Williamson  Montgomery,  for  the  College 
Settlements  Association.  This  is  a  pamphlet  of  sixty-eight  pages 
and  contains  admirable  resumes  of  the  work  of  all  known  settlement 
houses  throughout  the  world.  Besides  England  and  the  United 
States,  France,  Holland,  Germany,  Japan  and  India  are  represented. 
Valuable  lists  of  books  and  articles  about  settlement  work  are  in- 
cluded, and  there  is  a  special  list  of  books  compiled  from  sugges- 
tions made  by  fifty  experienced  settlement  workers  as  to  the  most 
useful  reading  for  new  recruits.  The  other  document  is  in  the  shape 
of  a  preliminary  report  made  in  the  Bulletin  of  the  Bureau  of  Statis- 
tics of  Labor  of  the  State  of  New  York  as  to  the  thirty-two  settle- 
ment houses  in  that  state.  In  addition  to  the  accounts  given  by  the 
various  head  workers,  the  report  includes  remarkably  interesting 
statements  from  workingmen  as  to  the  value  of  settlement  service. 


CHRISTIAN  ENDEAVOR 


Feancis  E.  Clark,  D.D., 

BOSTON. 

[Nearly  my  entire  ministry  has  been  a  blessed  experience  with  Endeavorers. 
This  experience  has  taught  me  how  a  pastor  may  help  his  society,  and  I  name 
a  few  particulars. 

First,  be  yourself  an  Endeavorer  to  the  core.  Know  Endeavor  from 
A  to  Z.  Know  its  history,  its  evolution,  its  problems,  its  points  of  possible 
weakness,  its  towers  of  strength.  Have  its  great  ruling  ideas  like  a  fire  in 
your  bones.  Be  possessed  with  its  rationale ;  believe  in  it  like  a  prophet  of 
God ;  catch  every  latest  and  best  inspiration  of  it  and  ideal  for  it.  Be,  in 
short,  its  outward  and  bodily  and  inspiring  presentment.  Prom  this,  through 
the  Lord  Jesus,  all  the  rest  will  flow. 

Next,  be  on  the  active  list.  I  do  not  mean  the  enrollment,  though  you 
should  be  on  the  roll ;  but  I  mean  the  real  thing.  Let  no  member  of  your 
society,  or  of  any  other,  exceed  you  in  society  fidelity.  The  prayer  meeting, 
the  sociable,  the  business  meeting,  and  the  rest,  be  at,  and  be  a  power  in  ;  not 
by  saying  much,  not  by  loading  up  with  detail  work.  Be  self-effacing.  Be 
emptied  of  self.  Be  a  presence,  an  atmosphere,  a  life.  Be  with  the  society 
as  Jesus  was  with  the  twelve,  they  free,  they  speaking  out  without  constraint 
their  every  thought,  but  Jesus,  in  His  quiet,  unobtrusive  way,  the  life  of  all, 
the  joy  of  all.     But  you  will  keep  Jesus  at  the  fore,  not  yourself. 

Every  minister  has  his  aptitudes,  his  directions  in  which  he  can  be  specially 
helpful  personally.  With  one  it  is  the  social  side ;  with  another,  aptness  to 
teach  ;  with  a  third,  singular  winning  capacity  for  the  Lord  Jesus,  etc.  Study 
yourself.  Get  in  your  best  special  work  with  a  tact  that  never  faileth.  Your 
best,  if  it  be  too  good  anywhere  else,  is  not  a  whit  too  good  for  your  Endeav- 
orers. 

"And  yet  show  I  unto  you  a  more  excellent  way."  Love  them.  Love  them 
as  if  they  were  each  of  your  own  body  begotten.  That  will  make  you  see 
their  faults,  but  more  their  excellences  and  their  vast  possibilities ;  and  the 
former  love  will  gently  extirpate,  and  the  latter  love  will  incite  and  unfold. 
Love  them  with  a  love  like  that  of  Jesus.  Be  a  discoverer  of  all  their  glory 
and  possibility  and  power,  like  Jesus,  and,  like  Him,  bring  it  out  into  actu- 
ality. Love  is  the  fulfilling  of  the  Christian  Endeavor  law. — David  N. 
Beach,  D.  D. — Ed.] 

*  *  * 

The  Society  of  Christian  Endeavor  was  formed  on  the  second  day 
of  February,  1881.  It  has  now,  in  1901,  almost  reached  its  ma- 
jority.    Its  object  was  to  increase  the  zeal  of  the  young  people  of  the 

442 


YOUNG    PEOPLE.  443 

Williston  Church,  of  Portland,  Me.,  in  which  it  was  formed,  to  at- 
tach them  more  firmly  to  the  church,  to  open  their  moutlis  in  con- 
fession of  Christ,  to  set  them  at  work  for  Him  in  all  appropriate  and 
useful  lines.  The  object  of  the  Society  to-day,  though  there  are  fifty 
thousand  organizations,  with  nearly  four  millions  of  members,  is  the 
very  same  that  it  was  twenty  years  ago.  Including  the  Epworth 
League  and  the  Baptist  Young  People's  Union,  which  are  branches 
of  the  same  tree.  Christian  Endeavor  numbers  at  least  five  millions. 

During  the  last  twelve  years  it  has  been  my  privilege  to  visit  every 
etatc,  province  and  territory  in  North  America,  almost  every  country 
in  Europe  and  Asia,  every  colony  but  one  in  Australia,  the  Ottoman 
Empire,  Egypt,  and  South  Africa,  Mexico,  and  some  of  the  islands 
of  the  East  and  West  Indies. 

I  would  be  a  dull  scholar  indeed  had  I  not  learned  some  things 
from  the  book  of  experience  concerning  the  essential  and  non-essen- 
tial features  of  Christian  Endeavor. 

A  thousand  matters  are  left  free  and  flexible  in  Christian  En- 
deavor. Personal  initiative,  invention,  resource;  the  constant  lead- 
ing of  the  Spirit  of  God,  are  possible.  The  Christian  Endeavor  con- 
stitution is  no  hard  chrysalis  which  forever  keeps  the  butterfly  within 
from  trying  its  wings.  There  is  room  even  for  experiments  and  fail- 
ures, since  we  will  always  remember  that  the  worst  failure  is  to  make 
no  endeavor.  Yet,  while  this  is  true,  it  is  equally  true  that  a  uni- 
versal movement  must  have  universal  principles  that  do  not  change 
with  the  seasons,  do  not  melt  at  the  tropics  or  congeal  at  the  poles. 
A  tree  puts  forth  new  leaves  every  year,  but  it  does  not  change  its 
roots.  It  simply  lengthens  and  strengthens  them.  The  roots  of  the 
Christian  Endeavor  tree,  wherever  it  grows,  are  Confession  of  Christ, 
Service  for  Christ,  Fellowship  with  Christ's  People,  and  Loyalty  to 
Christ's  Church.  The  farther  I  travel,  the  more  I  see  of  societies  in 
every  land,  the  more  I  am  convinced  that  these  four  principles  are 
the  essential  and  the  only  essential  principles  of  the  Christian  En- 
deavor Society.    Let  me  repeat  them : 

1.  Confession  of  Christ.     2.  Service  for  Christ. 

3.  Fellowship  with  Christ's  People.  4.  Loyalty  to  Christ's  Church. 

With  these  roots  the  Christian  Endeavor  tree  will  bear  fruit  in  any 
soil.  Cut  away  any  of  these  roots  in  any  clime  and  the  tree  dies. 
Believe  me,  I  am  not  writing  at  random  or  without  the  most  serious 
consideration. 

The  covenant  pledge  is  simply  a  tried  and  proved  device  to  secure 


444  CHRISTENDOM. 

frequent  confession  of  Christ.  It  is  essential  to  Christian  Endeavor, 
but  essential  only  because  it  secures,  as  nothing  else  has  been  known 
to  do,  the  frequent  and  regular  confession  of  Christ  by  the  young 
Christian.  It  also  secures  familiarity  with  the  Word  of  God,  b}'^  pro- 
moting Bible  reading  and  study  in  preparation  for  every  meeting. 
There  is  sometimes  an  outcry  against  the  pledge,  as  though  we  ex- 
alted a  mere  instrument  to  the  place  of  a  universal  principle.  This 
is  not  the  case.  We  exalt  the  pledge  as  a  builder  exalts  his  plumb- 
line  and  spirit-level.  They  are  not  his  house,  but  he  cannot  build 
his  house  without  them.  We  exalt  the  pledge  as  a  painter  exalts  his 
brush,  as  a  musician  his  violin,  as  a  writer  his  pen.  The  brush  is 
not  the  picture,  the  violin  is  not  the  music,  the  pen  is  not  the  poem ; 
but  the  brush  is  necessary  to  the  picture,  the  violin  to  the  music,  the 
pen  to  the  poem,  the  pledge  to  the  Christian  Endeavor  Society,  be- 
cause it  insures  regular  and  frequent  confession  of  Christ.  Then 
let  no  one  speak  lightly  of  our  covenant  pledge,  or  treat  it  lightly. 
In  one  aspect  it  is  but  a  form  of  words,  in  another  it  is  God's  great 
agent  used  to  raise  His  work  among  young  people,  to  create  a  new 
agency  of  outspoken  Christian  activity. 

Another  universal  principle  of  Christian  Endeavor  is  constant 
service.  If  confession  is  the  lungs  of  the  movement,  service  is  its 
hands  and  feet.  In  no  part  of  the  world  have  I  ever  found  a  good 
society  whose  members  were  not  at  work.  Never  have  I  found  a  true 
society  that  ignored  its  committees ;  for  our  committees  make  service 
possible  and  easy,  systematic  and  efficient.  The  Society  was  not 
made  for  its  committees,  but  the  committees  are  for  the  Society,  to 
make  it  a  working  organization.  The  most  multifarious  kinds  of 
service  have  our  societies  undertaken,  but  all  societies,  the  world 
around,  that  are  worthy  of  the  name  are  at  work  in  some  way.  What 
are  they  doing?  Ask  the  pastors  and  the  Sunday-school  superin- 
tendents in  America  and  Great  Britain  and  Australia.  Ask  the  mis- 
sionaries in  the  Punjab  and  among  the  Telugus,  among  the  simple 
people  of  the  Laos  country,  among  the  Armenians  and  the  Zulus,  the 
Karens  and  the  Arabs,  and  they  will  all  tell  you  the  same  story.  "In 
the  ideal  society  every  member  is  responsible  for  some  definite,  par- 
ticular task."  This  chorus  of  response  is  so  universal  and  emphatic 
that  it  must  have  a  significance  that  cannot  be  ignored.  This  fea- 
ture of  our  Society  is  not  a  matter  of  indifference.  It  is  not  a  late 
accretion.  It  is  not  a  question  of  climate  or  race.  From  the  first 
day  of  the  first  society,  during  all  these  nearly  twenty  years,  this  fea- 


YOUNG    PEOPLE.  445 

ture  has  characterized  our  movement,  and,  into  whatever  land  it  has 
spread,  it  has  been  knoAvn  by  this  feature  of  systematic,  organized, 
individual  service. 

Again,  I  have  learned  that  a  universal  essential  of  the  Society  of 
Christian  Endeavor  is  fidelity  to  its  own  church  and  the  work  of  that 
church.  It  does  not  and  cannot  exist  for  itself.  When  it  does  it 
ceases  to  be  a  Society  of  Christian  Endeavor.  It  may  unworthily 
bear  the  name.  It  may  be  reckoned  in  the  lists,  just  as  an  unworthy 
man  may  find  his  name  on  the  church  roll.  But  a  true  Society  of 
Christian  Endeavor  must  live  for  Christ  and  the  church.  Its  con- 
fession of  love  is  for  Christ  the  head,  its  service  is  for  the  church  His 
bride;  its  fellowship  is  possible  only  because  its  loyalty  is  unques- 
tioned. This  characteristic,  too,  I  have  found  as  universal  as  the 
Society.  I  have  found  no  real  exceptions.  In  city  or  country,  in 
Christian  land  or  mission  field  in  Europe,  Asia,  Africa,  or  America, 
it  is  everywhere  the  same. 

Because  this  is  our  ideal  and  our  principle,  and  our  earnest  en- 
deavor, let  me  urge  older  Christians,  however,  not  to  hold  Christian 
Endeavorers  responsible,  as  some  are  inclined  to  do,  for  every  weak- 
ness among  young  Christians,  which  the  Society  is  doing  its  best  to 
remedy,  but  cannot  wholly  overcome.  Because  many  young  people 
do  not  go  to  church  the  Society  is  often  blamed.  Because  some  for- 
get their  vows  the  splendid  fidelity  of  the  rank  and  file  is  forgotten. 
Because  the  church  pews  are  not  filled  or  the  Sunday-school  en- 
larged, or  the  longed-for  revival  comes  not,  the  Society  is  made  the 
scapegoat  by  some  unthinking  Christians  for  these  defects,  for  the 
very  reason  that  its  ideals  on  these  matters  are  exalted. 

Once  more,  our  fellowship  is  an  essential  feature  of  Christian  En- 
deavor. This,  too,  is  not  a  matter  of  zones,  or  climates,  or  latitudes, 
or  languages.  Our  fellowship  is  universal,  God-given  fundamental 
feature  of  Christian  Endeavor.  The  movement  to-day  is  more  em- 
phatically world-wide  than  ever  before.  In  ever)'  land  I  have  felt  the 
heart-throbs  of  my  fellow  Endeavorers.  Our  Christian  fellowship 
is  expressed  in  different  ways,  but  it  is  always  the  same  fellowship. 
In  Japan,  I  have  prostrated  myself  on  hands  and  knees  with  my 
fellow  Endeavorers  and  have  touched  my  forehead  to  the  floor  as 
they  touched  theirs.  In  China,  over  and  over  again,  a  thousand 
Endeavorers  have  stood  up  as  I  addressed  them,  and  have  shaken 
their  own  hands  at  me  while  I  have  shaken  mine  at  them.  In  India 
they  have  hung  scores  of  garlands  about  my  neck,  until  I  have 


446  CHRISTENDOM. 

blushed  for  my  own  unworthiness  of  such  a  flowery  welcome.  In 
Bohemia  they  have  embraced  me  and  kissed  me  on  either  cheek.  In 
Mexico  they  have  hugged  me  in  a  bear's  embrace,  and  patted  me 
lovingly  on  the  back.  Always  I  have  felt  that  these  greetings  were 
far  more  than  personal  matters.  They  represent  the  fellowship  of 
the  cause.  Always,  whatever  the  form,  the  loving  greeting  of  loving 
hearts  is  the  same. 

I  confidently  assert  once  more  what  the  experience  of  twenty  years 
in  all  lands  has  proved,  that  the  fundamental,  universal,  enduring 
features  of  Christian  Endeavor  are  confession,  service,  fellowship, 
fidelity.  Hold  to  these  fundamentals  the  world  around,  hold  to  these 
fundamentals,  Christian  Endeavorers;  exemplify  them  in  your  so- 
cieties and  your  own  lives,  and  abundant  as  have  been  the  blessings 
of  God  during  the  last  twenty  years,  the  next  twenty  will  far  surpass 
them.  Hold  to  these  principles,  and  you  will  understand  more  and 
more  of  Paul's  superlatives,  more  and  more  of  his  "exceeding  abun- 
dantly," when  in  the  fulness  of  his  life  of  confession,  service,  fellow- 
ship and  fidelity  he  ascribed  all  to  Christ,  crying  out :  "Now  unto 
Him  that  is  able  to  do  exceeding  abundantly,  above  all  that  we  can 
ask  or  ihink,  according  to  the  power  that  worketh  in  us,  unto  Him 
be  the  glory  in  the  church  and  in  Christ  Jesus  unto  all  generations 
for  ever  and  ever." 


[CHRISTIAN  ENDEAVOR'S  FIRST  TWENTY  YEARS. 

In  1881,  a  single  society.     In  1901,  societies  to  the  number  of  G0,750. 

In  18S1,  a  membership  of  .57.     In  1901,  a  membership  of  3,500,000. 

In  1881,  a  single  denomination  touched.  In  1901,  more  than  forty  denom- 
inations permeated. 

In  1881,  an  extreme  corner  of  one  country.  In  1901,  all  countries  on  the 
face  of  the  earth. 

In  1881,  the  English  language.  In  1901,  literature  in  Chinese,  Japanese, 
Malagasy,  Persian,  Arabic,  Turkish,  Bulgarian,  Armenian,  Siamese,  German, 
French,  Italian,  Greek,  Spanish,  Swedish,  Dutch,  Norwegian,  Welsh,  Aus- 
trian, Koptic,  Mexican,  Portuguese,  Indian,  the  many  tongues  of  India  and 
Africa. 

In  1881  no  national  organization  dreamed  of.  In  1901,  national  Christian 
Endeavor  organizations  in  the  United  States,  Canada,  England,  Scotland, 
Ireland,  Wales,  Australia,  France,  Spain,  Germany,  South  Africa,  India, 
China,  Mexico,  Japan. 

In  1881,  no  periodical  thought  of.  In  1901,  "The  Christian  Endeavor 
World,"  the  English  "Christian  Endeavour,"  the  Japanese  "Endeavor," 
(he  Australian  "Golden  Link"  and  "Roll  Call,"   the  South  African  "Gold- 


YOUNG    PEOPLE.  447 

ea  Chain,"  the  Spanish  "Esfuerzo  Cristiano,"  the  Mexican  "Esforza- 
dor,"  the  German  " Jugend-Hilfe"  and  "Mitarbeiter,"  the  India  "KndeaT- 
ourer,"  the  Canadian  "Banner,"  the  Jamaican  "Gem,"  the  Irish  "EndeaT- 
orer,"  tlie  Welsh  "Lamp,"  besides  a  throng  of  State,  city,  and  denominationtl 
Christian  Endeavor  organs. 

In  1881,  only  the  Young  People's  Society.  In  1001,  the  Juniors,  Interme- 
diates, Senioi-s,  Floating  societies.  Mothers'  societies.  Prison  societies,  Travel- 
ers' societies,  societies  in  factories,  schools,  colleges,  almshouses,  and  asylums. 

In  1881,  a  single  newspaper  article.  In  1901,  scores  of  books,  hundreds 
of  pamphlets,  and  Christian  Endeavor  articles  by  the  thousand  every  week 
in  the  leading  secular  and  religious  journals  of  the  world. 

In  1881,  no  j'oung  people's  religious  convention  even  guessed  at. 

1.  Portland,  Me 1882  11.  New  York,  N.  Y 181)2 

2.  Portland,  Me 1883  12.  Montreal,  P.  Q 1893 

3.  Lowell,   Mass 1884  13.  Cleveland,  0 1894 

4.  Old  Orchard,  Me 1885  14.  Boston,  Mass 1895 

5.  Saratoga,  N.  Y 1880  15.  Washington,  D.  C 1896 

6.  Saratoga,  N.  Y 1887  K!.  San  Francisco,  Cal 1897 

7.  Chicago,  111 1888  17.  Nashville,  Tenu 1898 

8.  Philadelphia,  Pa 1889  18.  Detroit,  Mich 1S99 

9.  St.  Louis.  Mo 1890  19.  London.  England 1900 

10.  Minneapolis,  Minn 1891  20.  Cincinnati,  0 1901 

Its  conventions  now  rank  among  the  greatest  in  the  world's  history. 
Nothing  short  of  circus  tents  will  hold  the  throngs.  More  than  flfty  thousand 
came  to  the  Boston  convention  in  1895.  Fifteen  thousand  crossed  the  con- 
tinent to  San  Francisco  and  met  fifteen  thousand  more  from  the  Pacific 
Slope.  This  convention  is  estimated  to  have  involved  an  outlay  of  !?9.000,- 
000.  The  last  convention,  held  in  London,  brought  together  about  forty  thou- 
sand persons. 

In  1881,  no  Christian  Endeavor  unions.  In  1901,  important  unions  iu 
practically  all  cities,  counties.  States,  and  Provinces  of  the  Enslish-speaking 
world  and  in  many  other  lands,  together  with  the  denominational  Christian 
Endeavor  federations. 

In  1S81.  three  Christian  Endeavor  committees.  In  1901.  the  lookout,  prayei^ 
meeting,  social,  missionary,  temperance,  fiower,  music,  good-literature, 
Sunday-school,  Christian-citizenship,  information,  executive.  Junior,  press, 
calling,  relief,  and—^chatsoevcr  committees,  with  all  that  thoy  imply  of  out- 
reaching,  practical  effort. 

In  1881,  the  young  people  neglected  in  church  life.  In  1901,  the  religious 
training  of  the  young  among  the  foremost  purposes  of  every  church. 

In  1881,  our  young  people  had  not  been  taught  to  give  systematically  for 
missions.  In  1901,  they  had  given,  during  the  previous  year,  more  than  half 
a  million  dollars  for  this  ])urpose  alone. 

The  Detroit  "News  Tribune"  of  July,  1899.  in  viewing  the  convention, 
and  in  estimating  the  Christian  Endeavor  movement,  is  impressed  by  the  rare 
spectacle  of  a  vast  concourse  of  modern  men  and  women  fasrinate.i  by  a  sp.Ht 
of  "other-worldliness,"  not  by  money-getting  or  other  form  of  self-seekiUK: 


448  CHRISTENDOM. 

"Every  effect  has  its  cause.  The  forces  that  have  conspired  to  bring  to- 
gether 50,000  people  from  the  four  corners  of  the  world  must  be  real.  All 
the  other  conventions  that  convene  in  this  city  of  conventions  are  explicable. 
The  purposes,  objects  and  motives  of  them  are  known,  and  there  is  not  the 
suggestion  of  mystery  about  tliem.  Material  well-being  of  some  sort,  usually 
of  a  pecuniary  nature,  is  behind  them  all,  and  even  the  city  that  invites 
them  to  its  hospitality  is  not  without  its  selfish  interest  in  receiving  them. 
But  here  is  the  most  stupendous  concern  of  them  all,  from  which  these  com- 
mon motives  are  wholly  absent.  No  pecuniary  profit  awaits  these  devoted 
members  of  the  Christian  Endeavor.  No  increase  of  knowledge  in  the  modes 
and  ways  of  getting  on  better  in  the  pursuits  that  add  to  worldly  and  luxu- 
rious pleasures  is  to  come  to  them  out  of  the  social  conditions  of  the  meeting; 
such  gain  would  be  loss,  according  to  the  ancient  formularies  of  their  faith. 
They  come  here  wholly  under  the  inspiration  of  an  other-worldliness.  They 
hold  that  the  biisiuess  of  this  life  is  not  what  the  world  calls  gain,  but  to  lay 
foundations  for  the  life  that  has  no  end.  The  essential  business  of  the  meet- 
ing is  to  get  increase  of  knowledge  and  fitness  to  bring  this  worldly  world  into 
the  possession  of  the  rich  faith  and  hope  they  themselves  enjoy.  In  other 
words,  they  come  to  give  something  and  not  to  get  something.  It  costs  them 
time,  money,  and  effort  to  do  it,  but  they  do  it. 

"This  society  has  put  to  good  use,  in  the  chuixh  and  for  the  church,  the 
earnestness  and  religious  enthusiasm  of  its  young  people.  It  has  made  this 
a  mighty  force,  directing  it,  developing  it.  and  pointing  out  to  it  the  way  to 
great  results.  It  has  formed  the  j'oung  people  into  a  vast  army,  under  one 
banner  and  under  one  Commander.  Its  work  has  been  as  wonderful  as  its 
growth.     The  society  stands  to-day  the  marvel  of  the  religious  world. " — Ed.] 


Brotherhood  of  Andrew  and  Philip:     Rev.  C.  E.  Wyckoff. 

The  Brotherhood  of  Andrew  and  Philip  was  organized  in  the  Sec- 
ond Reformed  Church  of  Reading,  Pa.,  on  the  first  Sunday  in  May, 
1888.  The  Rev.  Rufus  \V.  Miller,  who  was  at  the  time  assistant 
pastor  of  the  church,  his  father-in-law,  the  Rev.  Dr.  McCauley,  be- 
ing pastor,  found  his  young  men's  Bible  class  did  not  feel  the  Young 
People's  Society  of  Christian  Endeavor  exactly  met  their  need.  They 
requested  him  to  organize  something  exclusively  for  young  men, 
which  he  did.  Major  McCauley,  U.  S.  A.,  a  son  of  Dr.  McCauley, 
was  then  living  in  Chicago,  where  he  had  heard  of  the  Brotherhood 
of  St.  Andrew.  He  suggested  that  the  new  organization  could 
profitably  take  the  two  rules  and  the  ideas  which  bound  that  Brother- 
hood together.  This  suggestion  was  adopted  and  Philip  was  added 
to  Andrew  for  the  sake  of  distinction  from  the  older  Brotherhood. 

The  two  rules  and  the  aim  of  the  Brotherhood  are  set  forth  as 
follows : 


'Sky 


fe^sili 


tn  CD  ^ 


^ 


p^ 


UJ, 

J  J-  X  U  ££ 


od  — 


'  **  t—  ft-  ^rj 


YOUNG    PEOPLE.  449 

Section  1.— The  sole  object  of  the  Brotherhood  of  Andrew  and 
Philip  is  the  spread  of  Christ's  Kingdom  among  the  youth  and  older 
men. 

Sec.  2. — The  rules  of  the  Brotherhood  are  two:  The  Rule  of 
Prayer  and  the  Eule  of  Service.  The  Rule  of  Prayer  is  to  pray  daily 
for  the  spread  of  Christ's  Kingdom  among  men,  and  for  God's  bless- 
ing upon  the  labors  of  the  Brotherhood.  The  Rule  of  Service  is  to 
make  an  earnest  effort  each  week  to  bring  at  least  one  man  or  boy 
within  hearing  of  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ,  as  set  forth  in  the  ser- 
vices of  the  church,  Young  People's  Prayer  Meetings,  and  Young 
Men's  Bible  Classes. 

Sec.  3. — The  Brotherhood,  believing  in  "the  Holy  Catholic 
Church,  the  communion  of  saints,"  and  recognizing  the  special  power 
of  the  young  man's  social  nature,  lays  the  personal  obligation  upon 
its  members  to  utilize  and  manifest  the  spirit  of  comradeship  and 
Christian  fellowship  in  the  church  and  in  the  varied  walks  of  life. 

It  has  been  truly  said :  "The  early  church  grew  by  cellular  growth, 
one  individual  touching  another.  It  was  the  contagion  of  Christian 
contact.  One  Philip  found  Nathanael  at  home,  and  another  Philip 
found  the  Ethiopian  in  the  desert.  P^ach  knew,  and  told  what  he 
knew,  and  through  them  these  men  became  Christ's  followers. 
Would  you  have  spoken  of  Christ  to  these  men,  a  neighbor,  a 
stranger,  if  the  opportunity  had  come  to  you?  Would  you  have 
hesitated  ?  Would  you  even  have  thought  of  it  ?  The  early  church 
grew  with  such  rapidity  because  Christians  did  think  and  did  not 
hesitate.  The  Apostles  could  not  possibly  have  won  the  world  by 
preaching,  any  more  than  a  battle  could  be  won  by  generals.  It  was 
the  rank  and  jile  who  did  the  work.  With  what  leaps  and  bounds 
would  the  church  advance  to-day  if  every  one  who  knows  Christ 
would  think  about  some  one  who  does  not,  would  really  care,  would 
pray,  would  plan !" 

Up  to  this  time  (Dec.  IT,  1900),  the  organization  has  grown  to 
560  enrolled  chapters,  representing  33  denominations.  These  are 
found  in  almost  all  the  states  of  the  Union.  Two  have  recently  been 
organized  in  Canada  and  one  in  Japan.  The  number  of  members 
in  the  Brotherhood  is  estimated  at  15,000.  These  statistics  do  not 
represent  the  growth  of  the  movement.  Many  chapters  or  bands  of 
vounf'  men  have  been  organized  under  the  Brotherhood  name  which 
iiave "never  been  enrolled.  In  the  course  of  years  those  who  at  first 
promoted  the  Brotherhood  have  become  men  in  middle  life,  and  the 


450  CHRISTENDOM. 

ambition  of  the  Brotherhood  is  not  only  to  enroll  the  young  men,  but 
also  to  gather  together  and  develop  the  older  men  of  the  local  church. 
To  avoid  confusion  there  are  now  recognized  three  Brotherhoods, 
graded  according  to  age:  the  original  Brotherhood,  whose  members 
are  over  twenty-one,  up  to  any  age  the  local  chapter  may  decide 
upon ;  the  Junior  Brotherhood,  enrolling  young  men  from  sixteen 
to  twenty-one  years,  and  the  Boys'  Brotherhood,  which  takes  in  those 
under  sixteen  years.  All  three  branches  of  the  Brotherhood  are 
flourishing  and  have  been  copied  more  or  less  successfully  under 
various  names.  _ 

The  chapters  in  any  one  denomination  are  organized  as  a  de~ 
nominational  Brotherhood.  These  denominational  organizations  are 
pushed  whenever  they  are  thought  to  be  strong  enough  to  be  self-sus- 
taining. The  Reformed,  Presbyterian,  Congregational,  Methodist 
Episcopal  and  Baptist  chapters  have  been  so  organized.  Delegates 
from  these  denominational  bodies  are  appointed  every  two  years  to  sit 
in  the  Federal  Council,  which  has  charge  of  the  whole  work.  Scat- 
tering chapters  in  denominations  which  are  not  so  organized  are 
under  the  direct  care  of  the  Federal  Council.  This  council  is  unique 
as  perhaps  the  first  definite  organized  church  federation  modeled  on 
the  plan  of  our  National  Government.  The  president  is  the  Rev. 
Rufus  W.  Miller,  Reading,  Pa.,  founder  of  the  Brotherhood.  The 
general  secretary  is  the  Rev.  C.  E.  W3'ckoff,  Irvington,  N.  J.  This 
Federal  Council  arranges  for  biennial  conventions  representing  the 
whole  Brotherhood.  The  denominational  councils  arrange  for  bi- 
ennial conventions  on  the  alternate  years.  The  Federal  Council 
publishes  the  only  organ  of  the  Brotherhood,  called  "The  Brother- 
hood Star."  It  is  published  at  the  present  time  for  the  Council  by 
the  Rev.  J.  G.  Hamner,  Jr.,  25  East  Twenty-second  street.  New  York 
City.  The  Council  has  supervision  of  all  the  departments  of  the 
publication,  and  acts  as  the  Board  of  Editors. 


*Epwokth  Lkaqve:     Rev.  Wm.  D.  Grant,  Ph.D. 

A  DOZEN  years  ago  the  Epworth  League  had  no  regularly  organ- 
ized chapter.  To-day  it  has  almost  twenty-one  thousand.  Twelve 
years  ago  it  had  a  total  membership  of  twenty-seven.  To-day  it  has 
a  millibn  and  a  half.  Twelve  years  ago  the  Junior  League  had 
.scarcely  been  dreamed  of.     To-day  it  is  the  most  promising  division 

•Taken  from  "Year  Book,"  1901. 


YOUNG    P]:()PLE.  451 

of  the  great  Epworth  array,  having  a  membership  of  tens  of  thou- 
sands. Twelve  years  ago  a  suggestion  to  establish  a  newspaper 
organ  was  looked  upon  as  a  most  doubtful  experiment,  and  predic- 
tions of  failure  were  freely  made.  To-day  the  organization  has  an 
official  journal  whose  circulation  exceeds  that  of  any  church  weekly 
in  the  world,  published  at  a  financial  profit  greater  than  that  of  all 
ether  official  papers  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  combined. 
Twelve  years  ago  the  Epworth  wheel  was  just  beginning  to  move  in 
a  slow  and  labored  way.  Its  motions  have  been  accelerated  with 
each  passing  month,  until  now  it  is  rolling  with  speed  and  triumph 
around  the  world.  Young  Methodism  has  been  awakened  to  a  vivid 
sense  of  its  possibilities.  The  hosts  of  the  League  have  been  mar- 
shaled for  systematic  and  aggressive  Christian  service.  By  the 
blessing  of  God  we  have  been  inspired  by  nobler  ideals  of  intellectual 
and  social  life.  But,  best  of  all,  we  have  been  lifted  to  a  higher 
plane  of  personal  spiritual  experience,  and  have  consecrated  our- 
selves to  the  great  work  of  the  world's  redemption.  "What  hath 
God  wrought !" 

The  Epworth  League  is  the  most  extraordinary  movement  in 
Methodism  for  a  hundred  years.  Its  real  significance  was  not  ap- 
preciated at  first.  It  is  only  partially  apprehended  now.  We  are 
vet  too  near  to  its  beginnings.  Twenty  years  from  now  the  real 
meaning  and  bigness  of  the  movement  will  be  more  manifest.  Tlu> 
coming  generations  of  Methodists  will  place  Central  Church,  in  the 
city  of  Cleveland,  in  the  list  of  historic  places  whose  names  arc  men- 
tioned with  joy  and  pride,  and  will  give  May  15,  1889,  a  high  place 
among  the  chief  days  in  our  denominational  history. 


♦The  Brotherhood  of  St.  Andrew. 

The  Brotherhood  of  St.  Andrew  is  an  organization  of  laymen  in 
the  Anglican  Communion.  Its  sole  object,  as  stated  in  its  con- 
stitution, is  "the  spread  of  Christ's  Kingdom  among  young  men." 
The  words  "young  men"  are  understood  to  include  all  men  of  what- 
ever age  who  need  the  friendship  and  inlluence  of  Christian  men. 

The  Brotherhood  began  as  a  parochial  guild  in  St.  James's 
Church,  Chicago.  On  St.  Andrew's  Day,  1883,  twi-lve  young  men, 
with  the  approval  of  their  rector,  Eev.  W.  H.  Vibbert,  D.D.,  and 
under  the  leadership  of  Mr.  James  L.  Houghteling,  the  tearher  of 

*Taken  from  "Year  Book,"  1901. 


452  CHlllSTENDO]\l. 

rhe  parish  Bible  class,  agreed  to  follow  the  example  set  by  St.  An- 
drew in  bringing  St.  Peter  into  a  personal  acquaintance  with  the 
Messiah.  To  guide  their  efforts  they  adopted  two  rules:  1.  That 
of  prayer :  "To  pray  daily  for  the  spread  of-Christ's  Kingdom  among 
young  men."  2.  That  of  service :  ""To  make  an  earnest  effort  each 
week  to  bring  at  least  one  young  man  within  the  hearing  of  the 
Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ,  as  set  forth  in  the  services  of  the  church  and 
in  young  men's  Bible  classes."' 

Their  efforts  were  successful  beyond  expectation.  Information 
about  the  work  spread  from  place  to  place  and  similar  guilds  were 
formed  in  several  dioceses.  In  1886  thirt5'-five  of  these  scattered 
parochial  guilds  united  in  a  general  organization  known  as  the 
Brotherhood  of  St.  Andrew  in  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in 
ihe  United  States.  There  are  now  in  this  country  about  twelve 
hundred  parochial  branches,  or  Chapters,  with  a  total  membership 
of  about  ten  thousand  men. 

There  are  now  National  Brotherhoods  in  Canada,  England,  Scot- 
land, Australia  and  the  West  Indies.  There  are  in  all  branches  of 
the  Anglican  Communion  about  fifteen  hundred  Chapters,  with  a 
total  membership  of  about  thirteen  thousand  men. 

A  convention  is  held  each  year,  at  which  every  chapter  in  good 
standing  is  entitled  to  be  represented.  The  convention  appoints  a 
council,  which  is  charged  with  the  executive  direction  of  the  general 
organization.  This  council  maintains  an  office  in  the  Church  Mis- 
sions House,  281  Fourth  avenue.  New  York,  as  headquarters  for  the 
Brotherhood  and  as  a  centre  through  which  the  different  chapters 
are  brought  into  conmiunication  with  one  another.  It  publishes 
the  international  Brotherhood  monthly  magazine,  "St.  Andrew's 
Cross,"  and  other  literature  about  Brotherhood  work  and  methods. 

The  organization  of  the  Brotherhood  is  marked  by  extreme  sim- 
plicity. Complicated  machinery  has  been  avoided  throughout. 
Everywhere  emphasis  has  been  laid  upon  individual  responsibility 
for  individual  character,  work  and  influence. 

The  Roman  Catholics  have  just  adopted,  at  Cincinnati,  a  consti- 
tution federating  their  societies,  the  membership  of  which  is  about 
1,000,000. 

The  Baptist  Young  People's  Union,  closely  allied  to  Christian 
Endeavor,  and  the  Luther  League  may  be  learned  of  by  applying 
for  their  "Year  Books." 


THE  INTERNATIONAL  ORDER  OF  THE 
KING^S  DAUGHTERS  AND  SONSr 


Rev.  William  D.  Gkaxt.  Pli.l)., 

:VEW    YOUK. 

The  Order  of  The  King's  Daughters  and  Sons  began  its  exist- 
ence ia  the  union  of  ten  women  in  New  York  City,  each  and  all 
desirous  of  testing  the  question  whether  union  and  co-opera- 
tion for  their  own  greater  advancement  in  true  Christian  living, 
and  tlieir  usefulness  in  practical  good  works,  could  be  promoted. 
They  had  no  thought  of  a  world-wide  organization.  They  hoped 
each  to  become  the  centre  of  a  better  influence  than  had  heretofore 
been  exercised,  and  each  the  nucleus  of  some  little  group  of  friends 
that  she  might  gather  about  herself,  and  infuse  with  her  own  spirit, 
each  one  of  these  becoming,  in  turn,  a  similar  nucleus  for  ever- 
widening  circles  of  usefulness. 

They  met  for  the  first  time  at  the  residence  of  Mrs.  Margaret 
Bottome,  on  the  morning  of  January  13,  1886,  and  after  consid- 
eration of  the  good  to  be  gained  and  the  good  to  be  done,  decided  to 
organize  themselves  into  an  Order,  or  Sisterhood,  of  service. 

Mrs.  Bottome  was  chosen  as  president ;  Mrs.  Mary  Lowe  Dickin- 
son, Secretary;  and  Miss  Hamersley,  soon  succeeded  by  Miss  G.  H. 
Libby,  treasurer.  The  remaining  members  ])resent  were  ^Irs.  Theo- 
dore Irving,  Mrs.  F.  Payson,  Mrs.  C.  de  P.  Field,  Mrs.  J.  F.  Rug- 
gles.  Miss  S.  B.  Schenck,  and  Miss  G.  H.  Libby. 

Of  the  various  names  proposed  for  this  Order,  the  one  suggested 
by  Mrs.  Irving,  "The  King's  Daugliters,"  was  most  favorably  re- 
ceived. Mrs.  Irving,  a  well-known  educator  of  New  York  City,  had 
been  in  the  habit  of  giving  this  name  to  young  ladies  as  they  went 
out  into  the  world  from  her  school,  and  this  has  given  rise  to  the 
mistaken  impression  that  the  Order  originated  in  these  little  groups 
of  students. 

The  headquarters  of  the  International  Order  are  in   Xew  York 

*In  the  preparation  of  this  paper  1  have  heen  prentl.v  indebted  to  the  bp<- 
retary  of  the  Order.  Mrs.  Mar.v  I.owi"  Dickinson,  for  Uie  courtesy  of  irivinR 
me  access  to  her  valuable  ina-iuscripts  and  leaHet.s. — Ed. 

453 


454  CHRISTENDOM. 

City,  at  158  West  Twenty-third  street,  where  also  its  authorized 
organ,  the  "Silver  Cross,"  has  its  offices. 


THE   AIM    OF   THE   ORDER. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  International  Order  of  The  King's 
Daughters  and  Sons  is  one  of  the  most  unique  and  remarkable  of 
the  great  religious  societies  that  have  come  into  existence  during  the 
past  quarter  of  a  century.  Its  constitution  states  that  its  aims  and 
purposes  are  "to  develop  spiritual  life  and  to  stimulate  Christian 
activities,"  and  that  all  who  accept  these  "aims  and  purposes"  and 
who  "hold  themselves  responsible  to  the  King,  our  Lord  and  Saviour, 
Jesus  Christ,"  are  welcomed  to  membership. 

As  the  name  indicates,  the  Order  accepts  and  teaches  the  "Father- 
hood of  God  and  the  brotherhood  of  man,"  and  its  first  work  is  to 
strive  to  win  the  individual  heart  for  Christ,  so  that  the  individual 
life  may  be  governed  and  guided  by  His  Spirit. 

At  the  outset  the  Order  accepted  the  disadvantages  arising  from 
the  fact  that  it  based  its  union  upon  an  inward  and  spiritual  tie,  and 
left  the  question  of  outward  organization  to  take  care  of  itself.  It 
knew  the  world's  great  need  was  character — the  personal  touch. 

NO   DIVIDING   LINES. 

The  Order  recognizes  no  dividing  lines,  whether  of  race,  creed,  or 
social  conditions,  among  the  children  of  God,  but  welcomes  aU  alike 
to  an  earnest  effort  to  love  Christ  and  to  serve  Him.  Referring  to 
it  on  the  platform,  a  public  speaker  recently  said :  "It  is  the  only 
absolutely  catholic  organization  known  to  me."  The  editor  of  a 
well-known  religious  paper  wrote  of  it :  "It  is  one  of  the  two  great- 
est human  forces  now  at  work  in  the  world  to  bring  about  the  unity 
of  the  church  of  God." 

ITS  PROGRESS. 

Its  founders  desired  as  little  publicity  and  as  little  organization 
as  possible,  but  they  have  evidently  been  led  by  ways  they  did  not 
choose,  for  the  Order  spread  with  amazing  rapidity.  Their  badge, 
a  small  silver  cross  bearing  the  initials  of  their  watch-word,  "In  His 
Name,"  is  now  worn  all  over  the  world,  and  the  corresponding  sec 
retary  is  in  official  communication  with  nearly  every  nation.     The 


DAUGHTEKS    AND    S0N8.  455 

organization  was  incorporated  in  1889,  and  in  1891  the  word  "Inter- 
national" was  legally  added  to  its  title,  as  long  before  that  time  its 
work  had  become  world-wide. 

The  oldest  member  of  the  Order  lives  in  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  and  is 
one  hundred  and  two  years  old ;  the  youngest  member  was  made  such 
the  day  she  was  born.  Within  its  ranks  can  be  found  not  only  the 
little  child  and  the  wayworn  pilgrim,  but  some  of  the  noblest  men 
and  women  who,  in  the  church,  the  state,  the  university  and  the 
business  world,  are  to-day  shaping  the  policy  and  guiding  the  affairs 
of  the  nation  in  this  twentieth  century  of  marvelous  promise. 

METHODS. 

The  Order  works  in  groups  called  Circles.  These  vary  in  size, 
some  having  ten  members,  or  even  less,  some  numbering  hundreds. 
There  are  state  and  county  branches,  chapters  and  city  unions  in 
America  and  Canada,  and  national  branches  in  foreign  lands.  Its 
order  of  service  is  "the  heart,  the  home,  the  church,  and  the  world." 
While  the  organization  is  absolutely  i/fier-denominational,  j^erfect 
loyalty  to  that  branch  of  the  church  to  which  its  members  belong  is 
insisted  upon,  and  all  Circles  at  work  in  churclies  are  under  the 
teaching  and  guidance  of  their  own  pastor  or  rector. 

WORK. 

Just  another  of  God's  ways  of  blessing  the  world.  How?  By 
sending  His  Spirit  to  draw  one  heart  and  another  and  another  into 
loving  obedience  to  Christ.  Every  heart  .so  drawn  will  love  to  find 
some  little  work,  or  large  work,  to  do,  such  as  Jesus  would  do  if  He 
were  here.  Anything,  however  simple,  that  brightens  even  an  hour 
of  another's  life,  that  relieves  pain,  or  poverty,  or  sickness,  or  dis- 
tress, that  makes  the  world  a  happier  place  to  live  in,  that  teaches 
others  to  know  more  and,  especially,  to  love  more — thai  is  the 
Order's  work. 

The  choice  of  work  is  left  for  each  member  to  determine,  but  in 
the  choice  each  should  ask  God  to  guide  to  that  which  will  heli) 
most  and  that  for  which  each  is  best  fitted. 

Individual  members  may  work  alone,  but  Circles  nuiy  be  formed 
wherever  members  love  God  and  love  each  other  enough  to  help  each 
other  to  do  better  work  than  could  be  done  alone. 


456  CHRISTENDOM. 

What  are  they  doing  "for  the  love  of  Christ  and  in  His  name"? 
Everything  that  can  help  the  souls  and  bodies  of  the  children  of 
God — building  churches,  paying  mortgages  on  those  already  built, 
building  and  furnishing  parsonages  and  rectories,  educating  young 
men  and  women  for  the  ministry  and  for  the  foreign  mission  field, 
taking  care  of  orphans  and  widows,  of  the  old  and  the  sick,  building 
hospitals  and  infirmaries,  maintaining  day  nurseries  and  kinder- 
gartens, sending  trained  nurses  to  the  homes  of  the  poor,  and  fol- 
lowing the  sailors  out  upon  the  lonely  seas  with  evidences  of  loving 
care  for  their  spiritual  and  bodily  welfare. 

GROWTH  OF  THE  OEDER. 

It  was  never  the  intention  of  the  Council  to  keep  strict  records 
of  work  or  of  membership,  and  reports  or  registration  are  not  in- 
sisted upon;  but  since  the  organization  of  the  Order  in  January, 
1886,  with  ten  members,  it  has  attained,  in  1900,  to  a  membership 
approximating  400,000. 

At  the  present  time  it  exists  in  greater  or  less  numbers  in  North 
and  South  America,  in  Great  Britain,  Germany,  France,  Italy, 
Greece,  Switzerland,  Denmark,  and  Turkey,  in  Europe;  in  India, 
China,  Japan,  and  Turkey,  in  Asia ;  in  Australia,  New  Zealand,  the 
Sandwich  and  Hawaiian  Isles;  in  the  Bermudas  and  Bahamas. 
There  are  individual  members,  and  some  Circles,  in  Palestine,  effec- 
tive bands  in  Smyrna,  and  several  hundreds  of  members  in  mission 
fields  abroad.  In  many  of  these  places  organization  is  well  ad- 
vanced, and  there  is  not  only  a  steady  increase  of  membership,  but, 
what  is  far  better,  there  are  evidences  of  consolidation,  classification 
and  adaptation  to  many  practical  lines  of  helpful  work. 

The  Order  has  passed  beyond  such  sentimentalism  and  sensation- 
alism as  was  born,  not  of  its  principles,  or  its  general  management 
and  conduct,  but  of  its  excessively  rapid  growth.  This  growth 
proved  two  things :  first,  that  its  projectors  had  been  quite  right  in 
the  supposition  that  there  were  multitudes  of  women  eager  and  de- 
sirous of  making  their  lives  of  value  to  themselves  and  of  use  to  the 
world;  and,  second,  that  what  they  needed  was  not  stimulation  in 
order  to  make  them  willing  to  work,  but  education  in  the  world's 
needs,  and  instruction'  as  to  the  best  methods  of  battling  with  its 
misery  and  sin. 

But  the  transformation  of  this  mass  of  womanhood  into  com- 


DAUGHTERS    AXD    SONS.  457 

panies  of  well-trained  soldiers,  ready  for  an  aggressive  and  success- 
ful movement  against  any  one  form  of  suffering  or  sin,  has  been  a 
mighty  work.  The  marvel  is  not  that  it  should  have  been  so  im- 
perfectly accomplished,  but  that  such  wonderful  progress  should 
already  have  been  made.  And  how  largely  the  movement  was  of 
God,  and  not  of  man  nor  of  woman,  is  proven  by  the  fact  that  even 
under  the  prolonged  period  of  experiment  the  interest  and  enthu- 
siasm have  not  died  out,  and  the  uplifting  purpose  is  dominant  in 
thousands  of  women's  lives  who  have  not  yet  found  out  the  best  way 
to  make  the  most  of  themselves,  or  to  do  the  most  for  the  good  of 
others. 

The  measure  of  this  work  is  not  in  the  number  of  large  buildings 
erected,  nor  of  new  enterprises  successfully  carried  on ;  its  object  has 
ever  been  the  training  of  character  until  it  should  be  a  quiet,  helpful 
force  in  good  work  already  existing.  Yet  the  Order  can  point  to 
such  an  amount  of  new  and  aggressive  work  as  would  be  a  grand 
record  if  there  were  nothing  else  to  be  considered. 

Hardly  any  class  of  people  has  been  forgotten  in  its  ministrations. 
Among  the  poor  and  the  sick,  in  kindergartens,  hospitals  and  jails, 
among  the  victims  of  flood,  and  fire  and  disease,  the  little  cross  has 
gone  with  its  loving  service.  Missionaries  in  foreign  lands,  and  the 
Indians  on  our  own  vast  plains,  have  been  helped.  Special  interest 
has  always  been  shown  in  the  care  of  the  aged  and  of  little  children ; 
and  the  distinctively  educational  work,  in  school  and  college  exten- 
sion by  correspondence,  among  members  "of  the  Order,  has  no  insig- 
nificant place  among  the  varied  activities  of  The  King's  Daughters 
and  Sons. 

The  Order  is  urged  to  perform  all  these  services  silently,  not  to 
talk  about  them  unless  necessary  in  order  to  stimulate  others  to  do 
likewise;  to  forget  the  good  done  as  quickly  as  possible,  and  move 
forward  to  the  next  opportunity. 


INDEX. 


VOLUME  II. 


Abbott.  Ezra.  159. 

Abbot.  George,  Archbishop  of  Can- 
terbury, .308. 

Abeel,  David.  310. 

Ackermau.  .Tessie,  398. 

"Acta  Diurua,"  172. 

Adams,  Wm.,  31.5. 

Addams,  .Jane,  432,  438. 

"Age  of  Homespun.  The,"  12(). 

"Age  of  Reason,"  Paine's,  (io. 

Allen.  James  Grant,  18. 

Allen.  A.  V.  G.,  110,  144. 

Alliance  of  Reformed  Churches,  310. 

Alien  population,  341. 

Alexandrian  School  of  Pantaenus. 
202. 

Almy.  Frederick,  84. 

Almoners  need  to  be  instructed,  98. 

Altruism   before  A.   D.,   72. 

American  Bible  Society,  317. 

"American  Presbyterian  Review," 
314. 

American  paradise  of  labor,  48. 

America  for  Rome,  22.3. 

American  ecclesiastical  fraternity, 
310. 

Andrew,  Elizabeth  Wheeler,  398. 

Andover  House,  4.39. 

Andrea?,  .Jacob.  29.5,  307. 

Anglicanism  and  Greek  Church,  309. 

Anglican  Orders  and  Roman  Cath- 
olic Church,  319. 

Angelo,  Michael,  life  of.  102. 

Animism  stage  in  religion,  201. 

Apostolic  Church,  the,  .54. 

Apostolic  Succession.  214,  328. 

Apostles'   Creed,  252. 

Appreciation  of  ^lartineau,  1.30-7. 

Aquinas,  Thos.,  and  the  Pope,  248. 

Arian  Controversy,  20(!. 

Arminian  bent  in  Greek  Church, 
308. 

"Army's  Mother,  The,"  427. 


Arnold  of  Brescia,  219. 
Arnold,  Frederick,  108. 
Art  and  Jicligious  and  Social   Well- 

Being,    100. 
Art     in     education,     morality      and 

worship,  101. 
Art,  absence  of  all,  102. 
Art  in  Germany — Diirer,  102. 
Art    taught    prior    to    Reformation, 

102. 
Art  and  Nature,  102,  112. 
Art.  aim  of,  103. 
Art  and  I'uritan  austerity,  105. 
Art,  influence  of,  105. 
Art  in  Architecture,  100,  107. 
Art  and  the  kitchen  stove,  108. 
Art  and  money  values,  109. 
Art  Galleries  always  open,  109. 
Art  and  the  Bible.  104.  111. 
"Association  Men,"  307. 
Astruc,  107. 
Athanasius,  205. 
Atonement,  Grotian  theory,  125. 
Attending  church,   1. 
Augusburg  Confession,  30G. 

Bagehot,  Walter,  97. 
Bala,  Chas..  03. 
P.ellniny,    Ed..  44. 
B.iltimoi-e,  Moody  iu,  70. 
Hallou,  Adin.  51. 
"liarbarism,  first  danger,"  12(>. 
liarroics,  John  Ilrnri/.  12. 
Barker,   Helen   M.,  400,  402. 
Barnett,  Canon,  4.32-4. 
Barrett,  Kate   Wnllrr.  370. 
Barney.  Mrs.  .J.  K.,  .398. 
Barton,  Clara,  89. 
Basil  of  ('a'sniva.  205. 
Baur,  school  of.  21\ 
Baxter,  Richard,  252,  301. 
Beach.  David  .\..  442. 
Beauchamii,  Heleu  M.,  402. 


460 


IISDEX. 


Beecher,  Henry  Ward,  171,  383. 
Beecher,  Lyman,  3G8,  388. 
Beecher  Ed.,  05. 
Belfast,  Moody  in,  69. 
Believers,  oneness  of,  57. 
Belgian,  care  of  the  poor,  82. 
Bengel,  159. 
Benevolence  in  United  States,  1899, 

78. 
Benevolence  imposed  on,  97. 
Berry,  Chas.  A.,  323-4. 
Bergen,  Convent  of,  295. 
Bible,  re-setting  of,  6,  164. 
Bible  distributed,  12. 
Bible  better  understood,  14. 
Bible  a  new  book,  30. 
Bible,  social  wealth  of,  53,  56. 
Bible,  Luther's  translation,  104. 
Bible  illustrated,  111. 
Bible  Institute,  149. 
Bible  and  D.  L.  Moody,  152. 
Bible  and  Protestantism,  lot}. 
Bible  and  Reformation,  156,  221. 
Bible  and   research,   157. 
Bible,  first  book  printed,  172. 
Bible  and  H.  Heine,  222. 
Bible  kept  from  the  people,  225. 
Biblical  Criticism  warranted,  155. 
Biblical  Criticism,  schools  of,  158. 
Bible  study  among  students,  419. 
Bismarck,  -08. 
Bliss,  W.  D.  P.,  54. 
Blass  of  Halle,  160. 
Black,  Jas.,  389. 
Booth,  Wm.,  246,  223,  88. 
Booth  as  a  leader,  426. 
Boards  of  Charities,  78. 
Borjria.  Caesar.  217. 
Borromeo,  St.  Chas.,  289. 
Bottome,  Margaret,  453. 
Brainerd,   Cephas,  360-4. 
Brewers'  Association,  389. 
Bridges,  Cornelia,  370. 
Bard  ford,  Cornelia,  439. 
Bradlaugh.  Chas.,  435. 
Brooks,  Phillips,  144. 
Brooks,  Phillips,  biography  of,  116. 
Brooks,  Phillips,  a  preacher,  144. 
Browning,  Robert,  332. 
Brown,  Mrs.  M.  M.,  393. 
Brooklyn,  Moody  in,  69. 
Brotherhood  of  man,  4. 
lirotherhood  of  Andrew   and   Philip, 

448. 
Brotherhood   of  Andrew  and   Philip, 

rules  and  aims,  449. 
Brotherhood  of  Andrew  and   Philip, 

growth  of,  449. 
"Brotherhood  Star,"  The,  450. 
Brotherhood  of  St,  Andrew,  451. 


Buddhism,  73.  266. 

Buell,  Mrs.,  396. 

"Building  of  Character,  The,"  353. 

Burt,  Mary  T.,  392. 

Burgon,  Dean,  160. 

Burns'  "Cotter's  Saturday  Night,"  8. 

Burroughs,  Jeremiah,  303. 

Bushnell,  Kate,  398. 

Bushnell,  Horace,  120. 

Bushnell's  literary  activity,  123-6. 

Cadbury,  George,  330,  331,  336. 

Calvinism,  308. 

Calixtus,  George,  299. 

Cappadocians,  the  three,  205. 

Capital  and  labor,  3. 

Carlyle,  and  religious  change,  10. 

Carpenter,   Lent.  127. 

Carey,  Wm.,  237,  258. 

Carpenter,  Mrs.  George,  391. 

Cass,  General  Lewis,  388. 

Caughey,  James,  425. 

Catechism  of  Free  Church  Council, 
328. 

Categorical  Imperative,  Kant's,  169. 

Catholic  and  Protestant  Socialism, 
47. 

Catholicism  in  1800  and  to-day,  189. 

"Catholic  World,  The,"  223. 

Catholicism  as  a  principle  of  prog- 
ress, 227. 

Catholic  Unity  League,  318. 

Catholic  Total  Abstinence  Society, 
389. 

Celsus,  202. 

Cerularius,  Patriarch,  201. 

Chapman,  J.   Wilbur,  61. 

Chalmers,  Thos.,  214,  368. 

Charles  V.,  Emperor,  293. 

Chanuing  and  Martineau,  134. 

Chamouni,  Valley  of,  112. 

Charlemagne's  Capitularies,  76. 

Charity  inspired  by  Christ,  76. 

Charity  organization  societies,  95. 

Charrington,  F.  N.,  381. 

Chateaubriand,  72. 

Character  related  to  teaching.  147. 

Children's  Country  Holiday  Society, 
90. 

Chinese  Martyrs,  242. 

Christianity,  Gains  of,  12,  2.3. 

Christianity,  aggressive,  13. 

Christianity  a  vital  force,  22. 

Christianity  in  Modern  Society,  1. 

Christianity  persecuted,  5. 

Christianity  a  religion  of  service,  27. 

Christianity  a  social  force,  33,  34. 

Christianity  preeminent,  3.5. 

Christianity  a  spirit,  .55.  220. 

Christianity  and  Philanthropy,  72. 


INDEX. 


461 


Christianity  in  terms  of  life,  249. 
Christianity  self-renewing,  24t!. 
Christianity,    distinctive    feature   of, 

250. 
Christianity   emasculated,   252. 
Christianity,  why   tlie  best  religion? 

25G. 
Christianity,  unique,  204. 
Christianity,  universal  and  absolute, 

270. 
Christendom  dominates,  276. 
Christian  Church,  The,  12. 
Christian  fellowship,  14,  20. 
Christian  history  in  America,  20. 
Christian  cooperation,  20. 
Christian  sources  attacked,  41. 
Christian  social  movement,  42. 
Christian  Socialism,  43. 
Christian  Socialism  in  United  States, 

48. 
Christian  Socialism  in  Germany,  45. 
Christian  Socialism,  works  on,  .52. 
Christian  Sociology,  .52,  170. 
Christian  Social  Union,  The,  44. 
"Christian  Socialist,  The,"  43. 
"Christian  Nurture,"  122. 
Christian    Apologists,    the,    202. 
Christian  unity  in  mission  field,  23G. 
Christian  fundamentals  and  circum- 
stantials, 217. 
Christian    progress    and    unification, 

272. 
Christian    Church    centre    of    unity, 

275. 
"Christian  Union,"  310. 
"Christian  Guardian,  The,"  315. 
Christian  Union  and  Church  life  in 

United  States,  310. 
Christian  Commission,  the.  301. 
"Christian  Mission,  The,"  4.30. 
Christian  Endeavor,  442. 
Christian  Endeavor,  enthusiasm  for, 

442. 
Christian    Endeavor,    principles   and 

growth,  44.3. 
Christian     Endeavor,     first     twenty 

years,  440. 
Christian  cooperation   and  efliciency, 

SCiS. 
Christian  Endeavor  Convention.  447. 
Christian    Endeavor    Convention    of 

1899,  447. 
"Christian  Doctrine  of  .Justification 

and  Reconciliation.  The,"  140.^ 
Christ's  command  to  this  age.  75. 
"Christ  in  Theology,"  124. 
Christ  is  Christianity.  148. 
Chicago,  Moody  in.  70. 
Church,  better  known,  19. 
Church's  world-wide  view,  22. 


"Church  Army,"  44. 
Church,  labor  and  the  poor,  50. 
Church,  social  awakening  if,  57 
Church  and  social  demands,  58. 
Church    according     to     Roman    and 

Protestant,  220. 
Church.  dei)cndeut  on,  230. 
Church  a  fellowship  of  persons,  248. 
Church     discordant    and     powerless, 

277. 
Church,  theory  of,  cause  of  failure, 

278. 
Church    despotism    and    aggrandize- 
ment, 280. 
Church  Union  in  Scotland,  312. 
Church  of  Scotland,  313. 
Church  Vnion  Movements,  290. 
Church  Federation,  321. 
Church  Federation  in  the  Old  World, 

322. 
Church  Congress,  the,  322. 
Churches  of  Asia  Minor,  214. 
Cicero  and  benevolence,  73. 
City     Mission     and     Tract     Society, 

New  York,  90. 
Cities,   religion  and  philanthropy  of, 

370. 
Civilization     and     Roman     Catholic 

Church.  181. 
Clark,  Lincoln,  314. 
Clark,  Francis  E.,  442,  317. 
Clark,  Myron  H.,  389. 
Clement  of  Alexandria,  203. 
Clergy,  apathy  of,  42. 
Classes  in  America,  50. 
Clifford.  Dr.,  33.5. 
Cleveland,  President.  398. 
Cobbe,  Frances  Power,  131. 
Colt,    Stanton.  430. 
Coleridge,  250. 

College  Settlement  in  New  York,  437. 
Columbian  Congress  of  Religions,  19. 
Commandment,  the  fourth,  8. 
Communistic  experiments,  51. 
Communion  in  both  kinds,  209. 
"Communion    of   the   Christian   with 

God."  14.3. 
Comparison      of     Christianiti/     uith 

other  Religions,  255. 
Concord.    Formula   of,   294. 
Congress  of  Free  Churches,  a.  .323. 
Confession  of  Faith,  314. 
Confession  of  a  non-Catholic,  170. 
Congregational  I'nioii,  the,  44. 
Congressional  Li  lira  ry,  100. 
Constantinople  falls,  293. 
Convalescents,  care  of,  90. 
Controversy,   throlocical,   14. 
('oiipernlive  p.nrish  work.  .340. 
Coiiperative  Calendars,  347. 


4:62 


INDEX. 


Cox,  Samuel,  368. 
Corcoran  Art  Gallery,  106. 
Crapsey,  A.  »S'.,  272. 
Creed,    Ideal,  319. 
Creeds  in  New  York  City,  843. 
Crittenden,  Chas.  N.,  380. 
Critical  Philosophy,  the,  24. 
"Critique  of  the  Practical   Reason," 

25,  168. 
"Critique  of  Pure  Reason,"  168. 
Critical  and  Ethical  Movements,  155. 
Criticism  of  Bible  needful,  155. 
Critical  Inquiry,  purpose  of,  1.55. 
Critical     Students     of     Bible — great 

names,  159. 
Cromwell,  Oliver,  328,  370,  385. 
Crusius,  Martin,  307. 
Cummins,  Miss,  398. 
Cuyler  Theodore  L.,  358. 

d'Ailly,  Peter,  219. 

Dale,  R.  W.,  155. 

D'Aubigne,  Merle,  368. 

Day-Nurseries,  90. 

Davis,  Wm.  F.,  378. 

"Debitum    Legale, "    76. 

Defectives,  care  of,  91. 

de  Lavelaye,  M.,  and  Bible,  224. 

Delitzsch,  158. 

Dennison  House,  437. 

Denny,  Prof.,  143. 

De  Paul,  Vincent,  289. 

De  Smet,  Father,  193. 

De  Tocqueville,  17. 

Dewart,  B.  H.,  315. 

Dickinson,  Mary  Lowe,  453. 

Discontent,  reasonable,  109. 

"Dissertation  on  Langua.se,"  123. 

Disappointment  of  Jesus  Christ,  272. 

"Disputes  and  Quarrels,"  290. 

Distilleries  closed,  389. 
Divine  immanence,  the,  26. 
Divine  transcendence,  25. 
Divine  unity,  the,  135. 
Disunion  of  Christendom,  272. 
Dixon,  A.  C,  148. 
Doctrinal  Unity,  282. 
Dodge,  Wm.  E.,  338,  358. 
Dodge,  Hon.  Wm.  E.,  372. 
Doggett,  L.  L..  358. 
Dor^,  Gustave,  111. 
Dort,  Council  of,  252,  301. 
Doyle,  A.  P.,  176,  188. 
Dow,  General  Neal,  389. 
Drink  traffic  condemned.  385. 
Drurie,  .John.  297.  298. 
Drummond,  Henry,  151. 
Dunn,  Dr.,  386. 

Diirer  and  religious  art  in  Germanv, 
102,  104. 


Dwight,  Timothy,  106. 

Early  Christian  Literature,  165. 
"Ecce  Homo,"  73,  75. 
Ecclesiastical  Traditions,  176. 
"Economic  Review,"  the,  44. 
Ecumenical  Conference,  4. 
Ecumenical  Conference  of  Methodist 

Churches,  320. 
Edinburgh,  Moody  in,  68. 
Education   and   Art,   101. 
Edwards,  .Jonathan,  120. 
Edwards,  Justin,  388. 
Elizabeth's  Statute,  77. 
Eliot,  George,  174. 
"Elements  of  the  Science  of  Religion, 

The,"  261. 
Emerson,  R.  Waldo,  289. 
Emperor,  William  of  Germany,  366. 
Emperor,  Julian's  complaint,  74. 
Employer  and   Employed,  96. 
"Endeavors      after      the      Christian 

Life,"  132. 
English  social  movements,  44. 
English  and  American  system  of  re- 
lief, 77. 
English  Presbyterians  and  Congrega- 

tionalists,  302. 
England,  Moody  in,  69. 
England's  system  of  poor  relief,  79. 
Engels,  Friedrich,  revelations  of,  42. 
Environment  of  ^lan,  109. 
Epworth  League,  450. 
"Essays  Theological  and  Philosophi- 
cal," 132. 
"Essays,    Reviews    and    Addresses," 

133. 
"Essays  and  Addresses,"  Brooks.  144. 
Essential  Christianity,  245. 
Ethical  Problems,  170. 
Evangelical    Movement    in    England, 

115. 
Evangelical  Alliance,  316,  337-40. 
Evangelical  Alliance,  368. 
Evangelical  Alliance,  object  of,  369. 
Evangelical    Alliance,    branches    of, 

372. 
Evangelical    Alliance    and    Week    of 

Prayer,  372. 
Evangelical     Alliance     and     Confer- 
ences, 373. 
Evangelical    Alliance    and    religious 

liberty,  373. 
Evangelical   Alliance  and  toleration, 

375. 
Evangelical  Free  Churches  of  Great 
Britain,  327. 

Fabiola,  a  Roman  lady,  74. 
Fairbairn.  Dr.,  227,  228.  432. 
"Faiths  of  the  World,  The,"  255. 


INDEX. 


463 


Faraday,  Michael,  289. 
Farrar,  F.  W.,  386. 
Farnsworth,  Ezra,  378. 
Fashioning  the  child  nature,  353 
Fatherhood  of  God,  28. 
Federation  of  Churches,  321. 
Federation  extension,  337. 
Federation  in  the  New  World,  337. 
Federation,  political,  339. 
Federation  problem  in  America,  340. 
Federation    throughout    the    United 

States,  348. 
Federation  in  New  York  Citv,  342. 
Ferris,  Frank  A.,  356. 
Fermaud,  M.  Chas.,  364. 
Ferguson,  Mr.  and  Mrs.,  379. 
Federation  of  Students,  409,  420. 
Federation  of  Students  and  what  has 

been  accomplished,  421. 
Fellowship    with    Christ    ground    of 

unification.  274. 
Field,  E.  P.,  373. 
Fields,  Addie   Northam,  398. 
Field,  Mrs.  C.  de  P.,  453. 
Fifty    Years    of    Union    Theological 

Seminary,  370. 
Filioque    Controversy,    207.    291. 
■'Five   Views    of   Christian     Faith," 

129. 
Finney,  Chas.  G.,  21,  65. 
Fisch,  George,  368. 
Fliedner,  Pastor,  87. 
Florence,   Council  of,  272. 
Florence  Mission,  380. 
"Founders  great  in  their  unconscious- 
ness," 126. 
"Foundations   of    Belief,"    Balfour's, 

134. 
Founder  of  Christianity  systematizes 

nothing,  247. 
"Form,  The,"  107. 
"Frankfort  Journal,"  172. 
France's  care  of  poor,  81. 
Free  thought  interdicted,  296. 
French  Revolution,  the.  38.  189. 
Frederick,  Wm.  III.  of  Prussia.  305. 
Frederick,  Wm.  II.  of  Prussia,  305. 
Free  Church  Council  Mission,  334. 
Free  Church  Council  Mission  results. 

335. 
Free  Church  Council  and  South  Af- 
rica, 332. 
"Free  Church  Chronicle,  The.-"  331. 
Free  Church  Council,  origin  of,  323. 
Free    Church    Council,     objects    of, 

324. 
Free  Church  of  Scotland,  312. 
"Freedom    of    the    Christian    Man," 

229. 
Froude,  Mr.,  224. 


Fry,  Susanna,  M.D.,  400,  402. 
Fuller,  Andrew,  fJ3. 

Gains  of  Christianity,  12. 

Gale,  George  W..  65. 

Garrison,  Wm.  Lloyd.  385. 

Garvie,  Alfred  E.,  139. 

"Genius  of  Christ,"  the,  72. 

Geneva,  308,  364. 

Gerson,  John,  219. 

George,  Henry,  44. 

Germany's    National    Responsibility, 

80. 
GifiFord  Lectures,  Prof.  Tiele,  261. 
Gladstone,  W.  E.,  130,  217,  385. 
Glespie,    Rev..   312. 
"God  in  Christ,"  123. 
Goodrich  Settlement,  Cleveland,  440 
Goodman,  Ed.,  175. 
Gordon,  Anna  A..  398,  400,  402. 
Gospel  and  Greek  Philosophy,  202. 
Gospel  of  Beauty,  the,  112. 
Gospels  alone  sufficient,  249. 
Gould,  Helen  Miller,  363. 
Gough.  Jno.  B.,  388. 
Grant,   Wm.   D.,  127,  212,  245    SCS 

4.50,  453. 
Gray,  Wm.  C,  171. 
Grand  Old  ilan  of  Maine,  389. 
Greek  Christianity,  200. 
Greek   Church    replies   to    Pope   Leo 

XIII.,  200. 
Greek  Church  includes,  201. 
Greek    Church    oligarchical;    Roman 
Catholic  monarchical ;   Protestant, 
democratic,  207. 
Greek      and      Protestant      Churches 

friendly,  306. 
Greekand  Latin  Churches  divide.  200. 
Greek   Church    surrenders   to   Rome, 

292-3. 
Greek  Church,  form  of  worship.  209. 
Greek  Church  subordinate  to  State, 
Roman  Catholic  State  subordinate 
to  Church,  208. 
Greeks  scatter  at  fall  of  Constanti- 
nople, 293. 
Green.  Prof.,  164. 
Gregory  of  Nazianzus,  205. 
Gregory  of  Nyssa,  205. 
Gregory.  159,  160. 
Grimm,  Herman,  102. 
Grotius,  Hugo.  209. 
"Growth  of  Law.  The."  126. 
Grundy.  John,  128. 
Guizot.  M..  and  Bible.  224. 
Gurley.  Phineas  D..  314. 

Haldanes.  the.  63. 
Hall.  Robert,  .304. 
Hamlin,  Tennis  S..  149. 


464 


INDEX. 


Hamlin,  A.  D.  F.,  107. 

Hammond,  Burrell,  333. 

Hamner,  J.  G.,  450. 

Hamersley,  Miss,  453. 

Hiiring,  141. 

Harnack,  141,  165. 

Hai-rison,  Frederic,  130. 

Hastings,  Lord,  333. 

Hatfield,  Edwin  F.,  370. 

Haupt,  Prof.,  162. 

"Heart  of  a  Continent,  The,"  196. 

Heine,  Heinrich  and  Bible,  222. 

Hengstenberg,  Prof.,  164. 

"Herbergen  zur  Hermath,"  89. 

Herrmann,    141. 

Hiarm  House,  Cleveland,  440. 

Higginson,  Helen,  128. 

Higher  Criticism,  158,  162. 

Higher  Criticism  Opposed,  163. 

High  Churchman  and  Dean  Stanley, 

15. 
Hill,  Rolland,  63. 
Hill,  Thos.,  302. 
Hillis,  Newell  Dwight,  115. 
Historical  Criticism,  29. 
Historic  Episcopate,  318. 
"History  of  Pietism,  The,"  140. 
"History  of  Dogma,"  143. 
"  Plistory  of  the  German  People, "  21 6. 
"History  of  the  Popes,"  etc.,  216. 
Holland's  care  of  the  poor,  83. 
Holy  Trinity,  Philadelphia,  144. 
Holy  Ghost,  operations  of,  179. 
Holy    Living    and    Roman    Catholic 

Church,  183. 
Holy    Synod's    Reply    to    Pope    Leo 

XIII.,  200. 
Holy  Scripture  sufficient,  221. 
Hodges,  Dean,  350,  439. 
Hodge,  Charles,  311,  314. 
Hoffman,  Clara  C,  400,  402. 
Homer,  253. 

"Homiletic  Review,"  386,  432. 
"Home  Prayers,"  133. 
Hopedale  Community,  the,  51. 
Horton,  226,  336. 
Horwill,  H.  W.,  171. 
"Hours     of     Thought      on      Sacred 

Things,"  132. 
House  of  Bishops,  317-18. 
Housing  the  Poor,  92. 
Houghteling,  James  L.,  359,  451. 
Hughes,  Hugh  Price,  327,  334. 
Hull  House,  Chicago,  94,  432,  437. 
Huntington,  Wm.  R.,  338. 
Burst,  Bishop,  John  F..  290. 
Huss,  219. 

Hutton,  Mancius  H.,  1. 
Hutton,  R.  IT.,  130,  213,  217. 
Huxley,  Prof.,  130. 


Ideal  Creed.  319. 

Imagery  in  Worship,  danger  of,  100. 

Imperishable  Greatness,  114. 

Ingham,  Mrs.  M.  A.,  392. 

Ingram,  A.  F.  Winnington,  436. 

Industrial  Art,  105. 

Infidelity,  French,  63. 

"Influence  of  Christ  in  Modern  Life," 
the,  115. 

"Influence  of  Jesus,"  144 

"Inner  Mission,"  46. 

"Instruction  in  the  Christian  Relig- 
ion," 140. 

Institutions  rejected,   why?    214. 

Institutional  Churches,  58. 

Intellectual  Uniformity,  284. 

Intolerance  and  State  Church,  333. 

"International  Lesson  System,"  354. 

International  Y.  M.  C.  A.  Work,  360. 

Introduction  to  the  New  Testament, 
165. 

Ireland,  Archbishop,  223. 

Irenic  Movements  since  Reformation, 
293. 

Irving,  Mrs.  Theodore,  453. 

Islam  (universal  religion),  269. 

Israel's  Downfall,  214. 

Italy's  care  for  the  poor,  80. 

Jackson,  Samuel  Macaulcy,  115,  117. 

Jackson,  A.  W..  136.  228. 

James,  John  Angell,  368,  371. 

Jansen,  .1.,  216. 

.Japan,  regeneration  of,  13. 

Jay,  Hon.  John,  372. 

Jerome,  219. 

Jerninghara's  enumeration,  7.5. 

Jesus  Christ,   Lives  of,   14. 

Jesus'  method,  55. 

Jesuits,  19.S,  309. 

Jesus  Christ  the  only  Mediator,  228. 

Jewish  Canon,  161. 

John  of  Damascus,  205,  200. 

Johnson,  Mary  C,  392. 

Justification  by  faith  alone,  231. 

Justification  and  Luther,  231. 

Kant,  movement  led  by,  24.  25,  101, 

168. 
"Kant,  Lotze  and  Ritschl,"  143. 
Kaftan.  141. 
Kaiserswerth,  89. 
Keble.  John,  289. 
Keil,  Prof.,  164. 
Kellogg,  J.  B.,  379. 
Ketteler,  Bishop  of  Mayence,  47. 
Kingdom  of  God,  the,  56. 
King  of  Catholic  Italy,  366. 
King    of    Portugal    and    Evangelical 

Alliance,  374. 


INDEX. 


466 


Kingsley  House,  439. 

King's  Daughters  and  Sons,  453. 

King's  Daughters,  aim  of  the  order, 

454. 
King's  Daughters,  methods  and  work, 

455. 
King's  Daughters,  growth,  45(>. 
Kinnaird,  Lord,  334,  374. 
Kluge,  Pastor,  3(!G. 
Knight,  Wm.,  137. 
Knowles,  130. 
Koran   and  care  of  sick  and  needy, 

74. 
Kritopulos,  Metrophanes,  308. 
Kuenen,  school  of,  29. 

Labor   Problems   and    Itomaii   Cath- 
olic Church,  183. 
Labor   Colonies,   89. 
Laidlaw,  Walter,  321. 
Lambeth  Conference,  318. 
Langdon,  Wm.  Chauncey,  3(>0. 
Lane,  W.  R.,  331. 
Latin    and    Greek    Churches    divide, 

290. 
Latin   Church   charged   with   heresy, 

292. 
Laurier,   Sir  Wilfrid,  398. 
Lathrop,  Mary  T..  400.  403. 
Leavitt,  Mary  Clement,  398. 
Leckey,  74. 

Leppington,  G.  H.  d'E.,  72. 
Lewis,  Dio,  390. 
Libby,  Miss  G.  II.,  453. 
Liberty,  struggle  for,  328. 
Life,  power  of,  253. 
Little     Portland     Street      Unitarian 

Chapel,  129. 
Livermore,  Mary  A.,  400. 
Liverpool,  Moody  in,  68. 
Lollards,  219. 

"London  Spectator,  The,"  175. 
"London   Times,  The,"   174. 
London  Clergj-men,  group  of,  45. 
London    Congregational    Union,    the, 

44. 
Lord's  Prayer,  252. 
Love  of  God,  the,  27. 
Love   of   Christ   and   Souls,   Brooks' 

secret  of  success.  145. 
Lowell.  Josephine  Shaw.  98. 
Lower  Criticism,  158. 
"Lost  Boy,"  poem.  405. 
Loyal  Temperance  Legion.  403. 
Lucar,  Cyril.  308. 

Luther's  Bible  translation.  104.  221. 
Luther  in  Rome,  215. 
Luther's  Protest.  225.  245. 
Luther    and    justification    by    faith, 

231. 


Lutheran  and  Keformed  Union,  305. 
Lyons,  Council  of,  272. 

Maclauchlin.  22G. 
MacNeil,  Esther.  390. 
Maclaren,  Ian,  328. 
Mackennal.  Dr.,  XW,  336. 
Madison,  .lames,  IS. 

"Maine  Law,  The,"  .389. 

Mansfield  House.  4.'>.'>. 

Manchester  College.  128. 

Manning.  Cardinal.  1.30,  218. 

Marriages  in  London  and  New  York, 
344. 

Mary,  the  Virgin,  186. 

Martensen,  Bishop,  225. 

Marsten,   Francis  E.,  100. 

Martyn,  Henry,  41(5. 

Martincau,  James,   127. 

Martineau,  Thomas.  127. 

Martineau,  .lames,  in  Dublin,  Liver- 
pool and  London,  128. 

Martineau  appointed  professor.  128. 

.Martineau  in  Germany,  129. 

Martineau,  estimate  of,  130. 

Martineau's  literary  labors.  132. 

Martineau  and  Ihiitarianism,  134. 

Martineau,  honors  to.  136-7. 

Martineau,  unitjue  personality,  138. 

Martineau's  tribute  to  Koman  Cath- 
olic Church,  188. 

Marx,  Carl,  revelations  of.  42.  4.3. 

Massoretic  School.  lt;2. 

Masses,  condition  of  in  Germany,  45. 

Mather.  Mrs.  Samuel,  440. 

Maurice.  F.  D..  I.^O. 

Medici,  Giovanini.  217. 

Meharry,  .7.  B.,  .337. 

Melanchthon.  conciliatory.  294,  30t>. 

Mcnzies,   Allan,   255. 

Metaphysical  Society  and  Toleration, 
1.30. 

Methodism,  Canadian  union  of,  315. 

Methodism.  Australian  union  of,  .310. 

"Methodist  Times."  323. 

Methodist     Ecumenical     Conference. 
320. 

Meyer.  F.  B.,  334. 

Middle  Ages  and  the  poor,  76. 

Mill.  .John  Stuart,  101. 

Miller,  Rufus  W..  418. 

Miller.  J.  R.,  .353. 

.Milton.  .Tohn.  172.  242. 

"Mind  of  the  Master,"  the.  .319. 

.Missions  Problem,  the,  4. 
1   Missionary  Heroes.  240. 
I   Mispionarv  Progress  in  Madagascar. 
I        Fi.ii.  China.  241.  244. 
j    Missions,  ModoiTj.  beginntnjt  of,  237. 
I   Missionary's  message  the  same.  242. 


466 


IXDEX. 


Missions,  fonndations  laid,  248. 
Mission     Organizations     and     their 

Work,  239. 
Missionary  statistics,  239. 
Mohammed  II.  Recognizes  Patriarch 

of  Constantinople.  293. 
Mohammedanism   and   Philanthropy, 

74. 
Monasteries  Disendowed,  TO 
Moody.  Dicight  Lyman.  148,  21.  <>3. 

358. 
Moody's  leadership,  148. 
Moody  described,  14S-1.54. 
Moody's  message,  152. 
Moody  and  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  3*50. 
Moody's  evangelistic  campaigns,  *jS. 
Montgomerv.     Caroline    Williamson. 

441. 
Morgan.  G.  Campbell.  334.  .3.30. 
"Moral  Uses  of  Dark  Things,"  12G. 
Moral  Fallibility,  212. 
Morality  and  Art.  101.  102. 
Morley.  John.  130. 
Morrison,  .John.  224. 
Moravians  and  Schleiermacher,  117. 
Moravians  and  Missions.  238. 
Morse.  Richard  C,  64,  358. 
ilott.  .John  R..  407,  358. 
Mount    Herman.  149. 
Mozoomdar.  19. 
Muir.  Pearson  McAdam.  313. 
Hunger.  Theodore  T..  120. 
Mumford.   Catherine.   420. 
Mutnal  Aid  by  Christians.  71. 
Mysius.  Demetrins,  3')0. 
Mystics,  the.  219. 
McAll  Misbiion,  France,  381. 
McAulev,  .Jerrv,  .378. 
McBurney,  Robert  R..  4.  .3-58.  3G2. 
McCormick.  Cyrus  H.,  .3.58. 
McCaulev.  Dr..  448. 
McCrie.  Thos..  312. 
McNeill.  John,  .335. 

Nash.  Henry  S..  324. 

National  Religions.  .365. 

National  Temperance  Society.  3S6. 

"National       Philanthropist,       The^" 

388. 
"Nature     and     the     Snpprnatriral."' 

124. 
Nati:re  and  Art,  102. 
Neressarianism  repudiated,  129. 
Nestle,  159. 

Neighborhood  Guild,  437. 
X''io  Problems  of  Christianiti'.  1. 
New  York  City.  Moody  in.  70. 
New  Gospel,  the.  .54. 
Nettleton.  Aehael.  64. 
Newman.  John  Henry,  2.S9. 


•News  Tribune,"  and  Y.  P.  S.  C.  E. 

Convention.  447. 
"Neuremburg  Gazette."  172. 
Nic-aea,  Council  of.  74,  202. 
Nightingale.  Florence,  S6,  89. 
Nietsche,  170. 

Zsineteenth  Century  Marvelous,  71. 
Northfield.  Moody's  home,  6-9,  149. 
North  End  Mission.  Boston.  377. 
Nott.    Eliphalet,   388. 
Nottingham  Revival,  425. 
Nurses,  training  school  for.  8<j. 
Nurses'  Settlement,  New  York,  439. 

Oblate  Fathers.  193. 

"Obligations  to  the  Dead,  our,"  127. 

Oedipus  and  the  Sphinx  Riddle,  2. 

Old  Catholic  Church,  rise  of,  140. 

Old  Testament,  original  text.  161. 

Old  and  New  School  Presbvterians 
United.  31.5. 

Organized  and  individaal  poor  relief. 
84. 

Orr.  Prof..  143. 

Oriental  Orthodoxy  and  Protestant- 
ism, 307. 

"Our  Country,"  338. 

"Outlook,  The."  on  Protestantism. 
226. 

Overbeck,  Johann  F.,  111. 

Owen,  John,  300. 

Oxford  House.  4.35. 

Paganism     in     Worship     of     Greek 

Church.  209. 
Page,  Harlan,  370. 
Painting    is    poetrv    without    words. 

104.  ^ 
Palmer.  Alice.  398. 
Paleologus.  Emperor  Michael.  292. 
Paleologus,  Emperor  .John  VII..  292. 
Pantsenus,  of  Alexandria.  203. 
Parliament,    Queen   Elizabeth's   last. 

77. 
Papal   infallibility    not   impecabilitv. 

181. 
Parkhurst.   Chas.   H.,  creed   and  or- 

thodoxv,  2."vX  251.  1. 
Parker,  Joseph.  322.  .%33. 
Parr.  J.  Tolefree.  .331.  .334. 
Parrish.  Clara.  398. 
Parker.  Theodore.  124. 
Passmore  Edward's  House.  486. 
Pastors  unrestricted  doctrinally.  252. 
Pastor.  Louis.  216. 
PaiOD.  .Johi3.  374. 
Patton.  Wm..  368-71. 
Patton.  Col.  Robert.  370. 
Patriarch,  .Jeremiah,  307. 
Patriarch,  Joseph  II.,  .306. 


IM»EX. 


467 


Patriarch,  Cyril  Lucar,  307. 

Patriarch,  Michael  Cerlularius,  JOl. 
292. 

Payson,  Mrs.  F..  453. 

Payson,  Ed.,  172. 

Persecution  of  Christianity.  .">. 

Person  of  Christ,  power  of,  147. 

Pierson,  Silas,  Jr.,  378. 

Piereon,  Arthur  T.,  377. 

Pioneer  work  in  missions.  243. 

Pilate.  Pontius.  Holy  Stairs,  21ti. 

Phillips.  Wendell,  21. 

Philadelphia,  Moody  in,  OS). 

Philanthropy,  72. 

Philanthropic  Associations.  8ti. 

"Philosophy  of  Art.''  Kuskiu's.  101. 

Physical  Science,  31. 

Plato  and  Art.  101,  203. 

Polity  of   Greek   Church,    Oligarchi- 
cal, 207. 

Polity    of    Roman    Catholic   Church. 
Monarchical.  207. 

Polity  of  Protestant  Church,  Demo- 
cratic, 207. 

I'oor,  Housing  of  the,  92. 

Pope  Leo  III,  290. 

Pope  Nicholas  I.  lettei-  of.  291. 

Pope  acknowledged  successor  of  St. 
Peter,  292. 

Pope  Leo  IX,  201. 

Pope  Clement  VII.   293. 

Pope  Leo  XIII.  319. 

Pope  Boniface,  213. 

Pope  Leo  X,  215. 

Popes  Innocent — -VIII.  and  Alexan- 
der VI,  217. 

Population,   urban   and   alien.  340-1. 

Porphyry.  202. 

Porteus,  Bishop,  63. 

Potter.  Bishop.  21. 

Prayer  for  the  dead.  187. 

Practical  Christian  Socialism,  51. 

Preaching    of    the    age    transformed, 
27. 

Preaching  of  Martineau,  131. 

Prentiss,  George  L..  370. 

Prisoners'  Aid  Association,  92. 

Prevention    of   Cruelty    to   Children. 
93. 

Presbyterian     Church     of     England, 
312. 

Presbvterian   Old   and    New    Scl'.ools 
in  U.  S..  313. 

Priest    unknown     in     early     church, 
229. 

Priesthood  of  all  believers.  22.>. 

Private  Judgment,  right  of,  225. 

"Princeton,  Rev.,"  310.  31  i. 

Protest  at   Spire.   218. 

Protestant  defined,  219. 


"Protestant  Ueformatiou  in  all 
Countries,"  234. 

Protectant  Chri.stiuiiitj/,  L'lii. 

Protestantism  and  Bible,  150. 

Protestant  and  Catholic  and  Social- 
ism, 47. 

Protestantism  a  failure,  232. 

Propagation  of  the  Faith,  Society 
of,  190. 

I'rotestantism  in  danger,  235. 

Protestant  Foreign  llissions,  230. 

Protestantism  and  Oriental  Ortho- 
doxy, 307. 

Protestant  Pat.  of  Constantinople. 
309. 

Protestant  and  Gnvk  Cluinhes 
friendly,  3(i«!. 

Protestantism  in  Mexico,  319. 

Protestant  Episcopal  Church  and  re- 
union, 317. 

Protestant  Episcopal  and  Presby- 
terian  Churches.  318. 

Providence,  doctrine  of,  20. 

Pseudo-Isidorian  Decretals,  293. 

I'ullman's  model  town.  109. 

Punes.  George  7'.,  2.'». 

Purgatory,  187. 

Pusey,  Dr.,  289. 

Raikes,  Robert,  353. 

"Rainbow"  Bible,  102. 

Rankin,  Elizabeth,  127. 

"Rationale    of    Religious     Inquiry," 

132. 
Rechabites.  order  of,  388. 
Red  Cross  Societies,  89. 
Refining  influences.  109. 
"Reign  of  Law."  18. 
Reformers  and  Bible,  150. 
Reformation    of    10th    century.    215, 

24(5. 
Reformation    of    church    attempted, 

219. 
Reformatory  Councils,  219. 
Reformation  left  something  to  be  re- 
formed. 240. 
Reformation  theory  of  unity.  281. 
Reformation  a  reversion,  287. 
Reformer]      and      Lutheran      T'nion, 

305. 
lirligious  Leaders.   114. 
Religion,  Speeches  on.  118. 
Religious  liberty.   18. 
Ji'eligiouK  Thought .  23. 
Religions,      comparative     stu(iy     of. 

35,  257. 
Religious  life  changed,  41. 
Religious       Social       Movements       in 

r.  S.,  51. 
Religion  and  Art.  101.  104. 


468 


INDEX. 


"Religion  Within  the  Limits  of  Pure 

Reason,"  168. 
''Religious  Press,  The"  171. 
"Religion   in   Hist,   and  Mod.   Life," 

227,  228. 
Religion  not  a  monopoly.  231,  248. 
Religious  systems  depreciate,  245. 
Religions  Contrasted,  255. 
Religions  judged  by  value  for  human 

spirit,  260. 
Religions  morphologically  compared. 

260. 
Religion,  source  of,  266. 
Religion  in  our  Lord's  day,  273. 
Renaissance  of  Learning,  102. 
Rescue  Work,  376. 
Rescue  Missions  in  N.  Y.  and  other 

cities,  378. 
Reunion   of  the  church   in   God   and 

in  humanity,  288. 
Reunion   of  the   East  and   West  at- 
tempted, 292. 
Reunion  of  Protestantism  and  Prot. 

Episcop.  Church.  317. 
Revelation  closes,  3. 
Revolution    brings    people    to    front, 

37. 
Revelations  of  Marx  and  iiiugeis,  42. 
Revival  Movements,  61. 
Revivals  still  needed,  61. 
Revival  epochs,  63. 
Revivals,  group  of.  63. 
Revivals,  fruits  of.  63,  70. 
Revivals  in  U.  S.,  63. 
Revivals  in  Colleges,  64. 
Reynolds,  James  B.,  437. 
Ritschl,  Alhrccht.  139. 
Ritschl.  school  of.  29,  56,  141.  16S. 
Ritschl's  publications.   140. 
Ritschl,  influenced  by,  139. 
Ritschlian  theologv,  142.  169. 
"Ritschlian  Theology,  The,"  143. 
Robinson,  .Tohn,  10. 
Robertson,  F.  W.,  108. 
Robinson,  Major,  175. 
Robert,  Charles,  96. 
Robert  Browning  Settlement,  4.36. 
Roberts,  Brigham  II.,  403. 
Rogers,  Guiness,  322. 
Rotn.   Cath.  Christianity,  176. 
Rom.  Pontiff's  infallibility,  176,  ISO. 
Rom.  Cath.  Church  developed,  177. 
Rom.    Cath.    Church    an    organism. 

178. 
Rom.  Cath.  everywhere  same,  ISO.  T). 
Rom.  Cath.  power  to  remit  sin,  185. 
Rom.  Cath.  Missions,  188. 
Rom.  Cath.  progress,  190-192. 
Rom.  Cath.  foreign  forces,  192. 
Rom.   Cath.   Mission   statistics.   197.   I 


Rom.  Cath.  opposed  by  Greek 
Church,  201. 

Rom.  Cath.  priority,  213. 

Rom.  Cath.  Church  of  j.6th  century 
condemned,  217. 

Rom.  Cath.  arrogance,  217,  218. 

Romanism  and  Protestantism  con- 
trasted, 220. 

Rome's  denial  of  religious  liberty, 
227. 

Rom.  Cath.  Church  saves,  230. 

Rom.  Cath.  Ch.  and  Prot.  Reforma- 
tion, 233 

Rom.  Cath.  Ch.  dislikeKj  Protestant- 
ism,  233. 

Rom.  Cath.  Ch.  and  Anglican  orders, 
319. 

Round-the-World,  W.  C.  T.  U.,  398. 

Rosenkranz,   321. 

Royal  Templars  of  Temp.,  389. 

Ruggles.  Mrs.  .1.  F.,  453. 

Rush,    Benjamin,   387. 

Russell,  John,  389. 

Russia  and  its  poor,  81. 

Ruskin,  21,   101. 

Sabbath   Observance,   7. 

Sanderson,  Mrs.,  399. 

Salvation  Arrny,  423,  88. 

Salvation  Army's  Mother,  427. 

Scandinavia  and  its  poor,  81. 

Sacraments,  Rom.  Cath.,  182. 

Savonarola,  219,  289. 

Sankey,  Ira  D.,  68. 

Schleiermacher,  Friedrich,  117. 

Schleiermacher's  influence,  118. 

Schleiermacher's  discourses,  25,  230. 

Schleiermacher  a  professor,  119. 

Scheibel,  Prof.,  305. 

Schiirer,  141. 

Schodde,  George  H.,  155. 

Schauffler,  A.  F.,  353. 

Schenck,  Miss  S.  B.,  453. 

Scudder,  Vida,  437. 

Schell,  M.  Hermann,  227. 

Schaff,  Dr.,  15,  158,  373. 

Scrivener,   1.59. 

"Seat    of    Authoritv     in     Religion," 

133. 
Seneca  and  benevolence,  73. 
Septuagint  or  old  Greek  version,  161. 
Seymour,  Governor,  389. 
Shaftsbury,  Earl  of,  42. 
Shipton,  Wm.  E.,  358. 
Simeon,   Charles.  11,5,  408. 
Slack,  Agnes.  398. 
Social    order    and    the    Rom.    Cath. 

Church,  183. 
Sociological  Bureau,  .344. 
Social  Aspect  of  Christianity,  37. 


INDEX. 


469 


Society  an  organism.  34. 
Social  Democracy,  Tiie,  38,  48. 
Socialists  and  Sociology,  88. 
Social  conditions  in  America,  49. 
Social  system  of  Notv  Test.,  51. 
Social  conscience  awakened,  53. 
Social  Settlements,  432,  58,  94. 
Social  settlements  first  in  U.  S.,  43ti. 
Social  settlement  work,  438. 
Social  settlements,  character  of,  440. 
Social  Settlement  Bibliography,  441. 
Social  well-being  and  art,  104. 
Societe     des     Missions     Etrangeres, 

197. 
Somerset,  Lady  Henry.  398. 
Sons  of  Temp,  organized,  388. 
Soul's  immediate  relation  to  God,  24. 
Spinoza.  132. 
Spring     St.     Presbyterian     Chunli. 

N.  Y..  370. 
Smith,  George  Adam,  125,  151,  224. 
Smith,   Judson,  236. 
Smith,  Bishop  B.  B.,  310. 
Smith,   Henry  B.,  314. 
Smith,  Gipsy,  331,  335. 
Smith,  Christopher,  365. 
Stanley,  Dean,  15. 
"Standard,  The,"  175. 
Stiihlin's  "Kaut,  Lotze  and  Ritschl," 

143. 
State  Charities  Aid  Association,  86. 
State  Aid   and   individual   relief  for 

the  poor.  84. 
State   Church   and   intolerance.   3.33. 
Stead,  W.  T.,  436. 
Stead.  F.  Herbert,  436. 
Stevens,   ilrs.   L.    M.   N.,   393,   39S. 

400,  402. 
Stevenson,  Katharine  Lentc,  .385. 
Stewart,  George  H.,  68. 
Stewart,  Mother,  400. 
Stacker,  Pastor,  48. 
Strauss,  school  of,  29,  41,  165. 
Strong,  .Tosiah.  338.  368. 
Struggle  for  liberty.  .328. 
St.  Simon,  school  of,  39. 
St.  Matthew's  Guild,  44. 
St.  Basil  the  Great,  74. 
St.  Vincent  de  I'aul.  87. 
St.  Francis  of  Assisi,  146. 
St.  Francis  Xavier.  194. 
St.  Peter's  primacy  questioned.  200. 
Stuart,  Geo.  H.,  .361. 
Study  of  Scripture  and  sociology,  .5<!. 
Student    Volunteer     Movement,     13. 

240,  410. 
Stuckcnhcrg,  .J.  H.  V,\,  37,  52. 
"Studies  of  Christianity,"  132. 
"Study  of  Religion."  13.3. 
"Studies  in  Theology,"  143. 


Student  Missionary  Movement,  .3()3. 

Students  in   Bible  classes,  3(>3,  419. 

Student  Movement,  The  World- 
Wide,  407. 

Students  and  Religion,  407. 

Students,  Work  for,  408. 

Student  Federation.  420;  in  Ameri- 
ca, 409;  Great  Britain,  411;  Ger- 
many, 412:  Scandinavia,  413; 
Switzerland,  Holland,  France, 
Fgypt,  414;  India  and  Ceylon, 
415;  Australasia,  416;  China, 
417 ;  .Tapan,  420. 

Sunday-School,   3.53. 

"Sunday-School  Times,  The,"  408. 

S.  S.  teachers'  helps  and  traininjj, 
354,  3.56. 

S.  S.  Home  Department,  354. 

S.  S.  accommodation  and  equipment, 
355. 

Sunday-School  leadership,  356. 

Sunday  papers  discontinued,  330. 

Swabian   Concordia,  295. 

Swing,  Prof.,  14.3. 

Tacitus,   73. 

Talmage.  T.  De  Witt,  .376. 

Tammany  Hall.  215. 

Tauler,  219,  246. 

Tayler,  J.  .!..  129. 

Taylor.   N.   W.,   121. 

Taylor.  Graham,  439. 

Teachers'  heli)s  and  training,  .3.54. 

Tennyson.  130,  174. 

Temp.  Movement  in  America,  His- 
tory of,  386. 

Templars  of  Hon.  and  Temp.,  .388. 

Ten  Commandments.  2.52. 

Textual  Criticism.  K50. 

Theodore  of  Tarsus,  7(5. 

Thirty-Nino  Articles,  2.52. 

Thompson,  Eliza  .!.,  391. 

Tischendorf.  1.59. 

Tissot,   .Fames,   111. 

Toleration  and  Liln-rty.  15;  in  Aus- 
tria. Italy,  Si)ain,  France,  Switz- 
erland. Holland,  -Scandinavin, 
Brit.  Empire,  So.  America,  China, 
United   States,  M\. 

Tolerance  and  D.  L.  Moody,  150. 

"Toleration."  lectures  on,  144. 

Tolstoi.   170. 

Torgau    Book.   The.  295. 

Tourjee,    Ei)eii,  378. 

Toy n bee  Hall.  94.  4,32. 

Tregelles,   159. 

Trent,  Council  of.  21S,  225. 

Trinity  Church.  Boston.  144. 

"True  Wealth  and  Weal  of  Nations." 
126. 


470 


INDEX. 


Truth  and  Nature,  102. 
Truth  and  Christian  Union,  311. 
Truth  in  terms  of  life,  432. 
"Truth   of   the   Christian   Religion," 

143. 
Tucker,    Booth,    423. 
Tucker,  Wm.  J.,  439. 
Tubingen,  school  of,  164,  1G6. 
Tyndall,  130. 

'•Types  of  Ethical  Theory,"  132. 
Twining,  Louisa,  86,  97. 

Universities  of  England  closed,  128. 

Unity  and  the  mission  field,  236. 

Universal  religions,  266. 

University  Hall,  435. 

University    Settlement,    437. 

Union  Seminary  Settlement,  439. 

Union  of  Reformed  and  Lutheran, 
296. 

Union  of  churches  in  Scotland,  .312. 

T'nited  Presbvteriau  Church  of  Scot- 
land, 312. 

Union  of  Free  and  U.  P.  Churches, 
313. 

Union  of  Old  and  New  School,  315. 

Union  of  Canadian  Methodism,  315. 

Union  of  xVustralian  Methodism,  316. 

United  Presby.  Church,  Assiout,  414. 

"Union  Signal,  The,"  403. 

Upper  and  lower  strata  of  society, 
383. 

Urban   population   in   America,   340. 

Usher,  Bishop,  253. 

Van  Dyke's  Irenicon,  310. 

Varley,  Henry,  Brit.  Evangelist,  68. 

"Vicarious  Sacrifice.  The,"  125. 

Victoria,  Queen,  398. 

Vibbert,  W.  H.,  451. 

Vincent,  Bishop  John  H.,  392. 

Vincent,   Miss,  398. 

Visitation,  house  to  house.  93,  94. 

Vest,   Senator,   193. 

Von  Bodelschwingk,  Pastor,  89. 

Von  Gebhardt,  159. 

Von  Hofmann,  168. 

Wald.  Littian,  439. 

Wallace.  Mother,  400. 

Wanamaker.  John,  69,  356,  358. 

Ward,  W.  G..  130. 

Ward,  Mrs.  Humphry,  436. 

Warfield,   160. 

Warnack.  G.,  170. 

Warner,  Lucien  C,  364. 

Warner,  Amos  G.,  76,  78.  97,  98. 

Washington    and   Am.    Constitution. 

20. 
Washington.  Booker  T..  366. 
Watson,   John.   Ideal  Creed.  319. 


W.  C.  T.  v.,  ,385. 

W.  C.  T.  U.  named,  390. 

W.  C.  T.  U.  organized,  392. 

\\.  C.  T.  U.  crusade,  390. 

W.  C.  T.  U.  first  officers,  392. 

W\  C.  T.  U.  petition,  398. 

W.  C.  T.  U.  first  world's  convention, 

399. 
W.  C.  T.  U.  "Do  Everything  Policv." 

399. 
W.    C    T.    U.    honorable    mention. 

400. 
W.  C.  T.   U.  early   plans   for  work, 

393. 
W.  C.  T.  U.  extension,  400. 
W.  C.  T.  U.  results,  401. 
Weiss,  Bernhard,  150,  161. 
Week  of  Prayer,  origin  of,  372. 
Wellhausen.  school  of.  29,  158,  164. 
Westminster  Confession,  252. 
Weston.  H.  G.,  149. 
Wescott  &  Hort.  159. 
Wesley,  John,  245,  312.  424. 
Westminster  Assembly,  301. 
West.  Mary  Allen,  400. 
Wiclif,  219. 

Wichern,  John  Henry,  45,  87. 
V/illard,  Frances  E.,  392,  395.  402. 
Willard,  Frances  E.,  Memorial  Fund, 

403. 
Willard,  Hon.  Josiah  F.,  395. 
Williams,  Sir  Monier,  19. 
Williams,  Sir  George,  358,  365. 
Willis,  Nathaniel,  172. 
Williams,  Howard,  366. 
Williston     Church,     Portland,     Me.. 

443. 
Whittier,  253-4. 

Whittier  House,  Jersey  City,  439. 
Winthrop,  .John,  77. 
Wiseman,  Cardinal,  105. 
Wittenberg,  Congress  in,  45,  306. 
Wisbard,  L.  D.,  363. 
Wittenmeyer,  Annie,  .392. 
Wolverhampton,  Ch.  Council,  326. 
Woodbridge,  Mary  A.,  400. 
Woods,  Robert  A..  432,  44. 
Worship  and  family  religion,  8. 
Worship,  public.  9. 
Worship  and  Art,  101,  103. 
"Work  and  Play,"  126. 
World's    Student   Christian    Federa- 
tion, 363. 
Wordsworth,  Wm.,  289. 
"World-Wide      i>>tudent      Movement, 

The,"  407. 
Wright.  Carroll.  109. 
Wyckoff,  C.  E.,  448. 

Xaxier,  St.  Francis,  289. 


INDEX. 


471 


r.  M.  C.  A.  Origin  and  Develop- 
ment, 358. 

Y.  M.  C.  A.  Boston  .Jubilee,  30(1. 

Y.  M.  C.  A.  R.  R.  department,  363. 

Y.  M.  C.  A.  Navy  department,  'SCui. 

Y.  M.  C.  A.  achievement.  3.j8. 

Y.  M.  C.  A.  international  work,  300. 

Y.  M.  C.  A.,  origin  of,  305. 

Y.  M.  C.  A.,  13,  68,  93,  316,  410. 

Y.  W.  C.  A.,  93,  363,  412. 

Younghusband,  Captain,  tribute  to 
R.  C.  missionaries,  195. 

Younkin,  L.  D.,  378. 


Y.  P.  S.  C.  E.,  442,  317. 

Y.  P.  S.  C.  E..  enthusiasm  for,  442. 

Y.  P.  S.  C.  E.,  first  twenty  years  of, 

4i0. 
Y.  P.  S.  C.  E.  principles  and  growth, 

443. 
Y.  P.  S.  C.  E.  conventions,  447. 
Y.  P.  S.  C.  E.,  convention  of    1S<>!>, 

447. 

Zahn,  Prof.,  105. 
Zewos,  A.  C,  200. 
Zockler,  161. 


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